He attended Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1975.

[2] He obtained his legal education from the University of Minnesota Law School and received his Juris Doctor in 1980.

Tunheim then became a law clerk for Judge Earl R. Larson of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota from 1980 to 1981, and was in private practice in St. Paul, Minnesota from 1981 to 1984.

[4] He has sat by designation on both the Eighth and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals.

Tunheim served on the federal judiciary's Committee on Court Administration and Case Management from 2000 to 2009, and chaired it from 2005.