Tarun Gogoi was born on 1 April 1936 into an ethnic Assamese Tai-Ahom family at Jorhat district of Assam.

His father, Kamaleshwar Gogoi was a medical practitioner at Rangajan Tea Estate.

He began his primary education at No. 26 Rangajan Nimna Buniyadi Vidyalaya then moved to Jorhat Madrassa School and then to Bholaguri High School.

He passed his Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSLC) from the Jorhat Government High School, before graduating from the Jagannath Barooah College.

He obtained his Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the Gauhati University.

Gogoi started his political career as a member of the municipal board at Jorhat in 1968 before being elected to the Fifth Lok Sabha in 1971 from Jorhat.

Gogoi married Dolly Gogoi, a post-graduate in Zoology from Gauhati University, on 30 July 1972.

The couple have two children, a daughter, Chandrima Gogoi, an MBA, and a son, Gaurav Gogoi, a member of parliament from Kaliabor.

He represented Kaliabor in the Tenth Lok Sabha between 1991 and 1996, and the Twelfth and Thirteenth Lok Sabha between 1998 and 2001.

During his second term in the Lok Sabha, he was elected as the Joint Secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in 1976 under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

He later served as the General Secretary of the AICC, from 1985 to 1990, under Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

In the Thirteenth Lok Sabha he was a member of the Committee on Railways.

He served as the President of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) between 1986 and 1990.

He was elected Chief Minister of Assam in 2001, after leading the Indian National Congress.

He emerged as the longest serving chief minister of the state in a tenure from 2001 to 2016.

By the time he he ended his tenure as the chief minister, an improved law and order and a relatively violence free tenure were considered his legacy.

Then from August 2020 his health started detorioting, and after a long battle, he died on 23 November 2020.