[5] Chibundu Onuzo was born in 1991 in Nigeria, the youngest of four children of parents who are doctors, and grew up in Lagos.

[7] She studied for a PhD at King's College London, researching the West African Students' Union.

[14][15] She has written for outlets including The Guardian[16] and NPR,[17] and contributed the short story "Sunita" to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.

[18] Onuzo's third novel Sankofa was published in the UK by Virago in June 2021,[19] and was reviewed by The Guardian as "[a]n accomplished novel that explores difference and belonging with a cool intensity".

[29] In June 2018 Onuzo was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in its "40 Under 40" initiative.