Tina was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. Tina’s father Givi Kandelaki (1942–2009) was a Georgian economist and the director of a vegetable depot in Tbilisi, moved to Moscow upon retirement. Givi Kandelaki is descended from the Kandelakis, a noble Georgian family of Caucasus Greek descent from early medieval times. Tina’s mother Elvira Kandelaki (maiden name Alakhverdova) is a narcologist of Armenian descent. Tina graduated from high school #64 in Tbilisi. In 1993 Tina was accepted into the Medical Department of Tbilisi State University. But soon after she left medicine and transferred to the Journalist Department. In 2008 she graduated from the Foreign Affairs Department of the Russian State University for the Humanities.

On November 26, 2006, Kandelaki was involved in a car accident in Nice, France. Kandelaki was a passenger of a Ferrari Enzo driven by Suleyman Kerimov, Russian billionaire and entrepreneur. The car went off road and crashed into a tree. The cause of the car accident is unknown. Kerimov was seriously injured and rushed to hospital.

Kandelaki worked for Radio 105, a radio station in Tbilisi, Georgia, until 1995, when she left for Moscow and started working on many TV and radio stations, such as M-radio, RDV, Silver Rain Radio, 2×2, Biz-TV, Muz-TV, Vremechko and TV-6. Since September 2002 Kandelaki has been hosting the talk show Details on the STS channel with Russian celebrity guests. In 2006 she received her first TEFI (the highest Russian TV award) for the “Best Talk Show TV Presenter” nomination. Since February 2003 Kandelaki has been hosting the TV show «The Smartest», the most popular version of “Britain’s brainiest kid” quiz show. The show, as well as its host, received two more TEFIs — in 2004 and 2009. 2006 — Tina Kandelaki, together with Sergey Dorenko presented a weekly political program on Echo of Moscow (Russian radio station) 2008 —Kandelaki hosts Unreal Politics, a show that was aired on NTV. The show started as an experimental online project, in time Unreal Politics turned into one of the most popular talk shows on Russian TV with celebrity guests from politics, business and entertainment 2009 — Kandelaki hosts Two Stars, a TV show on Channel One 2009 — works as a producer of Infomania, a TV program on STS, a unique infotainment program for the thinking audience 2009 — dubbed Juarez, one of the guinea pigs of the G-force movie by Walt Disney Pictures 2010 — is a jury member of KVN Top-league (a TV game show) 2010 — is a TV-host for the show Perfect Man (STS Channel) 2010 – is a jury member of Bolshaya Raznitsa a parody show hosted in Odessa. (Russia One channel)

In 2006 Kandelaki won the Russian style and fashion award Astra for “The Most Stylish TV-hostess”; In 2006 won the Glamour magazine award for “Form and content”; Tina was voted the sexiest TV-hostess in Russia among 10 nominees of the “Top 10 Sexy” awards in a “TV” category; Winner of 3 TEFIs awards (2004, 2006, 2009); On November 29 “The Smart school” project, which was launched by Tina Kandelaki, won the national Runet Prize 2011 contest in the category of “Science and Education”.

In November 2007 Kandelaki condemned the policy of Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili. “A man who acted as a mouthpiece for democracy in Georgia turned out to be a medieval tyrant”. She addressed a call for Georgians to draw international attention to the situation in Tbilisi when the authorities were breaking up public demonstrations, and, also, to stop Saakhashvili. Since October 2009 Kandelaki is a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation by invitation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Kandelaki is a member of the Public Chamber on the Education Committee. Kandelaki takes an active stand for favorable conditions destined to cultivate the potential of gifted children, and promotes the introduction of modern technologies into Russian schools. Within the framework of the Public Chamber, Kandelaki organized and led a series of round tables titled “The Internet as an instrument of revealing weak spots of society” and “How would the Russian education system change under the pressure of demographic problems?”, among the participants of which were the heads of Russian regions, representatives of federal state authorities, influential businessmen and famous bloggers.

Tina Kandelaki is partner and co-owner of Apostol Media Group. The company produces TV-programs for leading Russian TV channels and provides a full spectrum of PR services. Kandelaki is the owner of “Tinatin”, a restaurant opened in Moscow in 2010. The recipes used in the menu of the restaurant have been passed down from Kandelaki’s mother. On June 3, 2011, Tinatin received the Russian National Restaurant Award for “Best Ethnic Cuisine”. From May to November 2011 Kandelaki was on the board of directors of Vyatka-bank. On January 29, 2012 Kandelaki launched a political talk-show with video blogger Dmitry Kamikadze – “A flight with Kamikadze”. Kandelaki is the producer of the program. In March 2012 Kandelaki signed a contract with cosmetics company Oriflame. According to the contract Kandelaki will represent Oriflame products for two years in Russia and the CIS countries, as well as participate in company events. Although there is no official information, and Kandelaki would not disclose the sum of the contract – it is rumored to be $2.000.000.

On August 26, 2011 at the Baltschug Kempinski Hotel in Moscow, Tina Kandelaki launched the first Russian National Educational project – “Smart School”. On February 25 Kandelaki became head of the public council of the “Clean Elections” monitoring group, which was organized by the Coordination Council of Young Lawyers association on February 23, 2012. On the evening of March 4, 2012 Kandelaki announced in her LiveJournal that “independent lawyers have acknowledged Vladimir Putin’s victory in the first round of elections”.

On February 28, 2012 Kandelaki held a round table with Russian presidential candidates titled “The future of Russian education: how to avoid a catastrophe.” In 2011 Kandelaki signed “Letter 55” (a public address from public representatives against the informational undermining of public trust in the Russian judicial system) which condemned the pressure put on the judicial system during the trials against the heads of the Yukos Oil Company.

In August 2019, Kandelaki accused Katy Perry of trying to kiss her at a private party.