As a child, he studied in an elementary school in Hohberg, and later at Collège Paul-Émile Victor in Mundolsheim, and Lycée Aristide Briand in Schiltigheim near Strasbourg.

Matthieu Tota explained the origin of his stage name Matt Pokora in an interview during the documentary Mise à jour broadcast on 26 August 2010 on NRJ 12 TV channel.

In the fall of 2003, he participated in the third season of Popstars, a French talent reality television show broadcast on M6.

He was a crowd and jury favourite, and became a member of a boy band called Linkup formed with Lionel and Otis, two other winners in 2003 Popstars.

[6] In 2004, soon after the break-up of Linkup, Matthieu started working preparing for a solo career collaborating with the producers Kore & Skalp.

M. Pokora released Player in a second edition in March 2006 with the bonus track added of the duet with Ricky Martin.

Also desiring a more international profile, he went to New York and created contacts most importantly with producers Ryan Leslie and J. R. Rotem.

To coincide with MP3 release, M. Pokora launched his Catch Me Tour 2008 ending with a concert in Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy on 18 November 2008.

The lead single "Juste une photo de toi" was released on 7 June 2010 and was a big hit reaching #4 in the French Albums Chart.

It includes collaborations with Wayne Beckford, Gee Futuristic, X-Plosive, Astro Boyz, Tarz, STX and Bionix.

Finally the English version titled Updated was launched on 14 March 2011, containing 11 songs, mostly adaptations of the French-language hits on Mise à jour.

Six of the titles were already known by the French public through the August 2010 Mise à jour Édition Deluxe release.

In January 2011, "Oblivion" an English-language version of "Mirage" was released with same arrangement but with new English lyrics for the international markets.

In March 2011, M. Pokora announced a tour of 15 French cities, venues in Belgium and a final show in the Olympia.

The album Mise à jour Version 2.0 was made available on 18 April 2011, containing 17 titles including 14 form the original, the Jean-Jacques Goldman cover single three English-language titles from Updated and a new French track "Si on échangeait les rôles", the French version of Updated's "Finally Found Ya".

The fifth studio album À la poursuite du bonheur by French singer M. Pokora, was released on 20 March.

[9] In 2011, Pokora voiced Duncan Rosenblatt, the main character of Firebreather, in the French dub of the Cartoon Network movie.

The soundtrack for the musical was released on Capitol Records / EMI on 22 March 2013 and entered the SNEP official French Albums Chart in its first week of release eventually reaching number 3 and also reaching number 4 in the Belgian (Wallonia) francophone Singles Chart.

The first was "Le jour qui se rêve", a solo performance by Pokora, and "À nous", a hit performed by M. Pokora (Robin des Bois), Nyco Lilliu as Frère Tuck (Friar Tuck) and Marc Antoine as Petit Jean (Little John).

His autobiographical song "Sur ma route" co-written by Jack Robinson, M. Pokora and Jordan Houyez from his album MP3 is about his experiences as a child in a broken home.

M. Pokora has been friends for many years with his personal choreographer Hakim Ghorab and his wife Aline and is godfather to their daughter Lola.

On June 29, 2014, during the last performance of Robin Hood show, he formalized his love story with dancer Scarlett Baya.

In 2004, he took part in the charity single "Chanter qu'on les aime", in support of Association Mondiale des Amis de l'Enfance (AMADE).

In the same year, he was in "Et puis la terre...", a charity single for the tsunami victims under the name Artistes Solidaritie Ici pour Eux (A.S.I.E.)

In 2007, he took part in two renditions: "Je fais de toi mon essentiel" by Emmanuel Moire and "S'aimer est interdit" by Anne-Laure Girbal both featured on the charity album "Le Roi Soleil – De Monaco à Versailles (LIVE) – Fight Aids".

In 2010, he appeared in Collectif Kilomaitre charity single "Un Respect mutuel", with many other hip hop and urban artists.