[8] He grew up in the Rose Park neighborhood of Salt Lake City and attended West High School, where he was student body president.

He "decided to make the decision a matter of prayer" and felt a "clear impression" to attend BYU, which had awarded him a full scholarship.

Christensen returned to BYU after completing his missionary service, and in 1975 graduated summa cum laude with honors with a bachelor's degree in economics.

Following graduation from BYU, Christensen was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and spent two years studying applied econometrics at Oxford University's Queen's College, receiving a master's degree in 1977.

[10] Once Christensen completed his degree program at Oxford, he returned to the United States to attend HBS where he received an MBA with high distinction in 1979.

[8] In 1982, he was named a White House Fellow and took a one-year leave of absence from BCG to work in Washington, D.C. as an assistant to the United States Secretary of Transportation, serving under both Drew Lewis and Elizabeth Dole.

After completing his doctoral study, Christensen joined the HBS faculty and set a record by achieving the rank of full professor in only six years.

[15] He served on the board of directors of Tata Consultancy Services (NSE: TCS), Franklin Covey (NYSE: FC), and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

Disrupting Class (2008) looks at the root causes of why schools struggle and offers solutions, while The Innovator's Prescription (2009) examines how to fix the American healthcare system.

[20] Christensen served in several leadership positions in the LDS Church,[21] including as an area seventy from 2002 to 2009, a counselor in the presidency of the Massachusetts Boston Mission, and as a bishop.

He was also a moving force behind the creation of For All The Saints, a book by Kristen Smith Dayley on the history of the LDS Church in New England, published in 2012 to which Christensen wrote the foreword.