After his education as a driving instructor, together with later teammate Stig Blomqvist at the Kvinnersta Folkhögskola outside of Örebro, Eklund was a Saab factory driver from 1970 till 1979.

He first drove a Saab 96 V4, in the early years of the Embassy/ERA European Rallycross Championship as teammate to his compatriot Stig Blomqvist.

From the early 1990s till 2009, his last full season, he was one of the fastest competitors of the FIA European Championship for Rallycross Drivers.

Eklund joined Toyota Team Europe in 1980, and gave the 2nd generation Celica's one of its best WRC result by finished second in the 1981 Rallye Côte d'Ivoire.

En får ente ge sej (Värmland dialect for "One must not give up") is Eklund's motto and the title of his biography.