Arjun Munda was born on May 5, 1968 in Khrangajhar Jamshedpur to a humble and religious family of Late Ganesh and Saira Munda. He is the youngest of the five children of the Munda family with one brother and three sisters. He did his schooling in local school and did his diploma in sociology from Indira Gandhi Open University.

He was married to Meera Munda in the year 1993 and the couple have three young children Abhishek, Abhinav and Avinash. Political career His political career began in the 1980s when he was just a teenager as part of the Jharkhand movement. This movement sought to create a tribal-dominated state from the southern area of India's northern Bihar state. Munda's political clout grew due to his focus on helping tribal and other backwards as well as people from all sections of the society.

In 1995, he was elected to the Bihar state assembly, representing Kharswan. He retained that seat in 2000 and 2005 elections with record margin. Due to the age old demand of the people of both Chotanagpur and Santhalpargana and intensity of battle for a separate state, the Government of India under the able leadership of Prime minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee the state of Jharkhand was created on November 15th 2000. Arjun Munda served as the Social Welfare Minister in his cabinet. During his brief stint as the Welfare Minister of the state he did excellent work and took some path breaking decisions. In March 2003, he was sworn in as the second Chief Minister as the non-BJP Legislators supporting the government called for Marandi's replacement. It was Munda, viewed as next most powerful tribal leader, was considered the best alternative. After Assembly election in Febriary 2005 National Democratic Alliance under the leadership of Munda with the support from some independent Legislators secured a majority in the house of 81 Representatives. However the NDA was not allowed to form government by the Governor which paved the way for Shibu Soren to become Chief Minister for a 11 days. On March 12th, 2005; however, Munda was reappointed Chief Minister, and won a vote of confidence in the state assembly on March 15, 2005, by a vote of 40 to 37, and thus began his second term as Chief Minister. Despite his reputation as an astute politicain and also an able administrator Munda did not compromise on the arm twisting strategies of the independent MLAs and resigned from his post on September 16th 2006. In the present world when all political leaders hanker after power and position,

Arjun Munda by relinquishing his post of the Chief Minister proved that nothing is more important than his ideology and welfare of the people of the state. He openly declared in the Jharkhand Assembly that he would not give in to the undue pressure of some of the supporting Legislators and would rather be in the opposition. Since then he has been working as the Leader of Opposition in the state and has again proved to be a constructive opposition in the state assembly. Recently he has been nominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party to contest from the prestigious Jamshedpur constituency for the forthcoming election in April 2009. Although he was not very keen to contest because of larger interest in state politics, he accepted the decision of the partys central leadership and agreed to contest the forthcoming parliamentary election. Munda has a long association with the city of Jamshedpur where he was born and grew and has contributed a lot to the society at large. People of Jamshedpur, the illustrated city of the most celebrated business house, have realised that the true development of the district is only possible from a person who has root in this place and who has a successful track record as a public representative.