[2] Rinder was born in London on 31 May 1978[3] into a Jewish family;[4][5] his mother is Angela Cohen, chair of the 45 Aid Society.

[10] Rinder studied politics and modern history at the University of Manchester, graduating with first-class honours.

[13][14] He went on to specialise in cases involving international fraud, money laundering and other forms of financial crime.

He was involved in prosecutions following the murders of Leticia Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis in January 2003, shot in a drive-by shooting, and the defence of British servicemen on charges of manslaughter after the deaths of detainees in Iraq.

[15] Since 2010, he has been involved in the investigation and prosecution of alleged bribery, corruption, and fraud in the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean.

[16] He approached ITV with a proposal for a remake of the 1970s programme Crown Court, but this was rejected in favour of a British version of Judge Judy, and McLennan offered Rinder the opportunity to front it.

[18] Despite this, he insisted that it be clarified on the programme that he is a practising criminal law barrister and not a civil court judge.

[25] In 2016, Rinder competed in the fourteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing, stating that he was doing so to make his grandmother proud of him.

broadcast on 13 August 2018, Rinder traced his Jewish family's tragic history and made new discoveries about his grandfather, Morris Malenicky, a survivor of both Schlieben and Theresienstadt concentration camps.

[32][33] In November 2022, it was announced that Rob Rinder would join chef Monica Galetti as the new co-host of Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby.

Rinder is the patron of Buttle UK, a charity for children from impoverished backgrounds, and in this capacity he has run the London Marathon, as well as launching[43] The Italian Job 2018 at The NEC, Birmingham on 10 November 2017.

He narrated a documentary on his 36-hour journey with MDAUK's chief executive Daniel Burger in Israel, between 12 and 13 November 2023, entitled Operation Swords of Iron, interviewing emergency personnel about 7 October 2023.

[50] Both Rinder and his mother, Angela Cohen, were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to Holocaust education and awareness.