Karunakaran's father is a former RAW agent and he grew up in New Delhi, before moving to Trichy with his parents, where he met short film maker and friend Nalan Kumarasamy.

He initially made a career as chemical engineer, graduating from SASTRA University, and then as an IT professional at Accenture, before Nalan approached him to feature in a short film he was making for the reality television show, Naalaya Iyakkunar.

Karunakaran had featured in such short film ventures at school and Nalan had cast him in Nenjuku Neethi, which went on to win the first place award that season.

Sundar C gave him brief roles in two of his ventures, while he made his first breakthrough portraying Vijay Sethupathi's friend in Karthik Subbaraj's Pizza (2012), after which he left work and concentrated on a career in films.

[2] Nalan subsequently cast him in his feature film debut Soodhu Kavvum (2013), for which Karunakaran won rave reviews.