[3] [4] At the age of eight, Munk moved to Aalborg with his mother, who became a housekeeper in the home of her husband's sister who was married to the city's mayor.

In 1599, under dramatic circumstances, Munk returned to Europe and Copenhagen, where the Danish magnate and Lord Chancellor Henrik Ramel hired him as a ship clerk.

In 1612, during the Kalmar War (1611–1613), Munk together with the nobleman Jørgen Daa led a successful attack on the Swedish Älvsborg Fortress, near today's Gothenburg.

In 1614, he led a search for the privateer Jan Mendoses, whom he fought in a battle at Kanin Nos near the entrance of the White Sea.

A few months earlier, Munk had also lost a vast amount of money as a result of an unsuccessful whaling expedition, which caused loss of social prestige.

[8] On 9 May 1619, under the auspices of Christian IV, Munk set out with 65 men and two of His Royal Majesty's ships, the frigate Enhiørningen (the unicorn) and the sloop Lamprenen (the lamprey).

In 1647, Isaac La Peyrère included in his Relation du Groenland an abstract in French of Munk's account and a new map, both marred by many inaccuracies that would be perpetuated by following writers and mapmakers.

[15] New editions by Awnsham and John Churchill (1704 [1650]), An account of a most dangerous voyage perform'd by the famous Captain John Monck, in the years 1619, and 1620;[16] Peter Lauridsen (Copenhagen, 1883), Efterretning af Navigationen og Reisen til det Nye Danmark af Styrmand Jens Munk; and by C. C. A. Gosch, Danish Arctic Expeditions 1605 to 1620, volume ii.

[17] In 1964, a small scale archaeological excavation at Munk's site on the Churchill River by two Danes, Thorkild Hansen and Peter Seeberg, found a few remains of Enhjiørningen in the tidal flats.

Hansen also wrote the popular book The Way to Hudson Bay: The Life and Times of Jens Munk (1969), adapted into a movie in 2015.