Author and journalist Tom Egeland was born in 1959 in Oslo, Norway. He grew up in the suburb Kalbakken in Groruddalen, north of Oslo's city center, where his parents ran two shops.

As a young teenager he was active in a local youth club for Christians, but he later left the Christian faith.

Egeland attended Nordtvet primary school, Groruddalen junior high school and Oslo katedralskole high school (1975-1979). During high school, he lived for a year as an exchange student in the USA (attending Northglenn high school in Denver and Granger high school in Salt Lake City) in 1977-78. Egeland's American host family were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (mormons).

Egeland worked as a journalist in the weekly magazine Vi Menn (1979-1983) before he was hired as a news reporter by the daily paper Aftenposten. He worked for Aftenposten from 1983 to 1992, as a reporter, news desk editor and night shift editor from 1983 to 1992. In 1992 he was hired by the newly founded tv channel TV 2, working as an editor at the Bergen based tv station's Oslo office (1992-2006). From 2006, Egeland has worked as a full time author.