When Tommy Körberg was born, his mother was unmarried and the relationship with the father had already ended so he spent his first year in a foster home until his mother met a new man, an alcoholic musician that made his childhood into a living hell.

At the age of 16 he dropped out of school and started the rock band Bootleggers. In time the band changed its name to The Maniacs and in 1968 they were on top of the charts with "Somebody's Taken Maria Away'. In 1969 he made his solo debut with album "Nature Boy". In the same year he made his first appearance in the El XIV Gran Premio de la Canción de Eurovision 1969 (1969), with the song Judy min vän' which was a big success in Sweden. He had a minor role in Ronja Rövardotter (1984) and a leading role in Benny Andersson's and Björn Ulvaeus' musical 'Chess'. He also appeared a second time in the The Eurovision Song Contest (1988).

The 1990s has meant further successes in musicals like Jean Valjean in Les Miserables and captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Tommy Körberg has been known for speaking his mind about other artists in Sweden and has a strained relationship with the press. He has been married twice and his family now lives in Oslo, Norway.