[4] Bender was born to a Jewish family in The Bronx, New York, and grew up in New Jersey, where his father was a college history professor and his mother was a kindergarten teacher.

[6] He attended Cherry Hill High School East,[7] where he decided to pursue a career as a civil engineer.

After meeting Tarantino in 1990 and being given the script for Reservoir Dogs, he agreed to produce the film, which went on to achieve commercial success.

[11] Throughout the 1990s, Bender also produced Pulp Fiction (1994), Killing Zoe (1994), Fresh, White Man's Burden (1995), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Jackie Brown (1997), Good Will Hunting (1997), A Price Above Rubies (1998), and Anna and the King (1999).

[13] In 2009, Bender produced the Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.

[17] Bender makes a cameo appearance in many of the films he produces: he was a police officer chasing Mr.

[22] In 2008, it was reported that Bender was working with Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor to create a television series based on the 2007 album Year Zero.

[24] In 2017, it was announced that Bender and Brown would executive produce a reboot pilot of the television series Roswell for The CW.

[32] Being of Jewish descent, in August 2015 he signed – as one of 98 members of the Los Angeles' Jewish community – an open letter supporting the proposed nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers led by the United States "as being in the best interest of the United States and Israel.

"[33] On May 11, 2013, he returned to The University of Maine to receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree and share remarks during the 2013 Commencement ceremonies.