Mohsen Kadivar was born in 1959 in Fasa, in the southern province of Fars, Iran.
He has obtained his primary education at Ibn-Sina Elementary School.
He then transferred to Sharghi Primary School and finally to Tohid Junior High School (former Pahlavi University High School) in Shiraz.
He graduated from high school in 1977 in Mathematics and began his studies as an honor student in electronic engineering at former Pahlavi Engineering University (currently Shiraz University).
Although he had completed half of his coursework in engineering, with the onset of the Islamic Revolution and nation-wide university closures (cultural revolution), Kadivar left his studies in electrical engineering in pursuit of a newly discovered passion in Humanities.
In 1981, Kadivar married Zahra Roodi and they have four children.