Uriel Reichman was born in Tel Aviv during the Mandate era to Gerda and Alfred who had fled Nazi Germany.

[1] After attending elementary school in Ramat Gan and Tichon Hadash high school in Tel Aviv, during which he was a member of the Scouts and Maccabi Ramat Gan football club, he started his national service in the Israel Defence Forces, serving in the Paratroopers Brigade and reaching the rank of lieutenant.

[1] After his brother's death, Reichman was transferred to a non-combat unit, becoming president of a military tribunal and attaining the rank of major.

However, he resigned his seat on 28 April 2006 in protest at not being given the Education portfolio (which went to Yuli Tamir of the Labor Party), which he claimed he had been promised by both Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert.

[9] In 2018 Reichman was given the Robert and JoAnn Bendetson Public Diplomacy Award by the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University.