His father was a dentist and property developer while his mother was a child prodigy and accomplished pianist who graduated high school at the age of 14.

[14]Mullen practiced in the garage of the family home while wearing a comprehensive protective pads setup, a precaution that was part of the deal with his father.

Mullen graduated from P. K. Yonge Developmental Research School where he had a 4.0 GPA and studied biomedical engineering at the University of Florida, where he majored in mathematics, although he later dropped out due to his daily schedule.

Although talented, he was pathologically shy and suffered from anxiety as well as anorexia as a teenager; while on tour, he ran away from the Bones Brigade van during a rest stop in Maryland.

[16][12] In 1978, even though he had only owned a skateboard for just over a year, Mullen placed fifth in the Boy's Freestyle category at the US Open Championships at Kona Skatepark in Jacksonville, Florida.

[17] Mullen was also influenced in a positive manner by professional skateboarders from Florida including Ed Womble, George McClellan, Clyde Rodgers, Tim Scroggs, and Kelly Lynn.

Mullen enrolled in the chemical engineering program at the University of Florida, leaving during his senior year prior to completing his degree in order to take over management of World Industries with fellow Bones Brigade team member and company co-founder Steve Rocco.

When I saw him [Gelfand] do it on the wall, I immediately—I'm thinking, the mechanics of it: how do you get your board off the ground—how would you get your board off the ground like he did off the wall, 'cause I'm stuck on flat ground, not weightless...[T]he first ones I did took about, I don't know, five, ten minutes...I realized, that's just the same motion I've been doing for years—it's a see-saw motion; that's how ollies work...it's just a punch and a little hop; and the real key to it was dragging your foot and leveling it out, which brings the board up...In a back-handed way, people credit me within the documentary, Stacy [Peralta]'s Bones Brigade documentary, credit me with the importance of the ollie that gave the foundation for street skating, which is just skateboarding today, all that; and to me it was like, "Yeah, but, it's not a big deal."

"[15] In 1997, Mullen started a company, the A-Team—along with Marc Johnson, Gershon Mosley, Dave Mayhew, and Chet Thomas—with the intention of forming a "super team".

Mullen stated that through extensive stretching and the use of blunt objects he was able to break up the scar tissue in order to restore his range of motion.

[30] The Almost company celebrated its 10th anniversary with an event at the Berrics indoor skate complex in early March 2014, and Mullen attended the venue for the first time.

[33] Together with other members of the Almost team, Mullen appeared in a June 2015 photo retrospective of the Almost brand that was shot and curated by skateboard photographer Seu Trinh.

[34] Mullen was part of the Globe brand's "EUTrippin'" 2015 European tour, alongside other team members including Mark Appleyard and Haslam.

This prevents the hanger from moving laterally relative to the kingpin and thereby eliminates undesired ride characteristics such as hanger-jiggle and wheel bite.

[42] As of December 2012[update], the Tensor team consists of Mullen, along with Daewon Song, Ronnie Creager, Enrique Lorenzo, Manny Santiago, Zered Bassett, Felipe Ortiz, and Joey Brezinski.

[43] Mullen subsequently left Enjoi to co-found Almost Skateboards with Daewon Song, who had been unable to find success with the two preceding deck companies that he had founded, Deca and Artafact.

[65][66] In 2015, Mullen wrote the foreword to the Dwindle and Globe history book Unemployable: 30 Years of Hardcore, Skate and Street[67] reflecting upon his twenty-year involvement with those companies.

[20] Mullen has completed numerous public speaking engagements and has been invited to present on topics such as his personal life, skateboarding, innovation, creation, and the concept of community.

The Lemelson Center exchanged ideas and views with Mullen about skateboarding, in addition to the manner in which creativity and innovation can contribute to the development of an improved society.

[18] Mullen was invited by the Sapling Foundation, as part of its TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) public speaking series, to present at the University of Southern California (USC) in June 2012.

[25] Mullen also spoke about resilience and creativity in a talk entitled "Getting Back Up" at the Pop!Tech "Sparks of Brilliance" event in October 2013.

[69] In the first half of 2014, Mullen was invited by the O'Reilly Media technology company to present at its "Strata" and "Velocity" conferences, both of which were held in Santa Clara, California.

[95] Transworld also included Mullen in its "30 Most Influential Skaters of All Time" list, released in December 2011 and he was elected into the third position, behind Tony Hawk (second) and Mark Gonzales (first).

[98] Rodriguez explained his selection on his personal website: If you really wanna know Gonz [Mark Gonzales] and Rodney Mullen pretty much innovated damn near everything in street skateboarding.

"[100] Anthony Pappalardo of The RIDE Channel unequivocally stated, "From almost singled-handedly creating the entire vocabulary of flip-based tricks to revolutionizing the boards below our feet, Rodney Mullen is the biggest influence on modern skateboarding.

And by doing that, it gave me a place, a sense of belonging and, in the end, I was able to contribute, at a foundational level, a lot of the tricks that the entire community uses to express themselves.

[14][76] He says, "Any eyes on me—a late-night street sweeper, some dude texting in his parked car, the homeless guy talking to himself—make me feel uncomfortable when I skate.

[106][110] It has been publicly revealed that Mullen owns a pair of high-powered audio speakers, each weighing around 200 pounds (91 kg), through which he plays a diverse range of music, including Sabaton and Beethoven: "Me and my neighbors, we have an understanding...and so I sit perfect, you know, triangle at the front.

You sit there with the remote and you turn it up, just when it starts to hurt, and hit one more and then go like [presses his hands to his ears] that, and then you just feel it in your whole body for a while, as long as you can take it.

[97] Mullen has spoken publicly about his spiritual beliefs; while he thanked "My Lord, Jesus, for all He's done for me" in his autobiography[106] and has studied the Bible,[114] he explained in 2010: "The term religion bums me out.