Rinder was born into a Jewish family in London on 31 May 1978. His maternal great-grandfather left Talsi, Latvia – then within the Russian Empire – after the 1905 Russian Revolution and joined the British Army in World War I. The grandson of a Holocaust survivor, Rinder’s maternal family roots extend back to Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland. After the Nazi invasion of Poland at the start of World War II, his maternal grandfather, Moses (also known as Maurice) and his family were sent to a ghetto, where Maurice worked in a local glass factory. With most of the family sent to Treblinka extermination camp, Maurice as a worker was then moved to a concentration camp in Schlieben, Germany, to work in a tank munitions factory.

Rinder was called to the bar in 2001 after graduating from the University of Manchester, starting his pupillage at 2 Paper Buildings. He then became a tenant at 2 Hare Court. 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, and the defence of British servicemen on charges of manslaughter after the deaths of detainees in Iraq. 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.

Rinder entered into a civil partnership with barrister Seth Cumming at a ceremony on the island of Ibiza in 2013, conducted by Rinder’s friend, actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Cumberbatch was legally entitled to conduct the ceremony because of his online Universal Life Church ministerial ordination and Rinder was later one of three best men at Cumberbatch’s wedding to Sophie Hunter in 2015. It was reported in January 2018 that Rinder and Cumming had separated.

In 2014, Rinder started to write a legal-based discussion column in the newspaper The Sun, and in 2015, he released a book called Rinder Rules. Rinder became a columnist for the London Evening Standard in 2017.

In 2015, Rinder released a book called Rinder Rules. In 2016, he presented a new series, Judge Rinder’s Crime Stories, with reconstructions of real crimes. He also hosted Raising the Bar on BBC Radio 5 Live, which he started with a discussion with former Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge. In December 2017, Rinder re-launched Crown Court on ITV, newly named Judge Rinder’s Crown Court, with a two-part special after a 30-year hiatus.

From September 2016, Rinder competed in the fourteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing, stating that he was doing so to make his grandmother proud of him. Rinder was partnered with Ukrainian-born professional dancer Oksana Platero. Rinder was eliminated in week 11 after scoring 31 points dancing a Samba to “Oh, What a Night”. He ended the competition in fifth place.

Rinder is the patron of Buttle UK and, in this capacity, has run The London Marathon, as well as launching The Italian Job 2018 at The NEC, Birmingham on 10 November 2017.

In December 2018, Rinder hosted Good Year Bad Year, a one-off special on Channel 4 where Rinder discussed the topical highs and lows of 2018 along with a number of celebrity guests. In 2019, he began hosting the Channel 4 series The Rob Rinder Verdict.