[3][4] Podolnjak finished elementary and high school in Varaždin, after which he enrolled in Zagreb Faculty of Political Sciences from which he graduated in 1981.

[5] Robert Podolnjak got his first job in 1985 when he started worked as an adviser and secretary in the government of the City of Varaždin.

[5] At 2009 local elections, Podolnjak ran as a HSS's candidate for mayor of Varaždin but lost which led to his resignation from party membership.

[9] He was eventually elected Deputy speaker and Chairman of the Committee on the Constitution, Standing Orders and Political System of the Croatian Parliament.

On 2016 parliamentary election, he was re-elected to the Parliament and later to the position of the chairman of the Committee on the Constitution, Standing Orders and Political System with the support from HDZ and SDSS.

[10] After Bridge of Independent Lists decided to leave Cabinet of Andrej Plenković and therefore move to the opposition, Podolnjak was replaced as the Committee's chairmen by academician Željko Reiner (HDZ).