Held in tandem with the women's tournament, the two events comprise the 4x4 beach volleyball competition at this year's Games.

The tournament is a multi-stage competition, consisting of a round-robin group stage and followed by a single elimination knockout round, starting with the semi-finals and ending with the gold medal match.

[2] Each National Olympic Committee might enter up to one men's and one women's team in the 4x4 beach volleyball tournaments.

The five spots were awarded to the best FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings for each continental federation.

[1] Teams were seeded in the first two positions of each pool following the Serpentine system according to their FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings as of 30 June 2019.