[needs update] Enríquez-Ominami is the son of Revolutionary Left Movement's historical leader Miguel Enríquez and sociologist Manuela Gumucio.

His father, who stayed in the country to organize and lead an underground résistance against the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, was assassinated in October 1974 by DINA agents who uncovered his secret location in Santiago.

[3] From 1990 to 1995 Enríquez-Ominami completed a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Chile, where he was vice president of his major's student board.

In 2008, he directed the comedy film Mansacue produced by his production company and which was based on the television series La vida es una lotería by TVN.

He worked as professor of film production in Chilean and Peruvian universities and collaborated in political campaigns for Ricardo Lagos and Carlos Ominami in Chile and also in Peru and Mexico.

However, after claiming the Concertación leadership changed the primary rules in order to bar him from the process, Enríquez-Ominami decided to run as an independent.

With the financial support of businessman Max Marambio, he began the process of collecting nearly 36,000 signatures needed to register his independent candidacy.

Despite being relatively unknown, Enríquez-Ominami quickly rose in opinion polls, garnering 10% of support by April 2009, capturing the leftist electorate dissatisfied with the choice of Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei as the Concertación candidate.

After the election, he refused to endorse either candidate, saying "Eduardo Frei and Sebastián Piñera are too much alike [...] They don't represent hope, nor change, nor the future.