He was born in the Nepean district to timber merchant John Tunks and Esther Arndell.
He was an apprentice carpenter at Parramatta and later the licensee of an inn and a metal contractor.
On 11 December 1838 he married Margaret McCone Bisseck, with whom he had eleven children.
In 1864 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for St Leonards, serving until his retirement in 1874.
This biographical article related to an Australian cricket person born in the 1810s is a stub.