His father was Abu Ahmad Abdul Hafiz, a lawyer, who was one of the founders of the Sylhet branch of the All-India Muslim League and took part in the Pakistan Movement.

His elder brother was AM Abdul Muhith, a former minister of finance, and his sister is Shahla Khatun, a physician and National Professor of Bangladesh.

[6] Abdul Momen continued his education in the United States, receiving a MPA from Harvard Kennedy School and a PhD in economics from Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, in 1988.

There he taught in the Department of Economics and Business Administration at Framingham State College until appointed Bangladesh's permanent representative to the United Nations in New York in August 2009.

[11][2] Yahoo news[12] reported that Abdul Momen said in February 2020 that Bangladesh had "no obligation" to provide shelter to Rohingya refugees who were stranded in the Andaman Sea on a ship.