Kangana was born in 1987 to Asha, a school teacher and Amardeep, a businessman. She has a elder sister, Rangoli and a younger brother Akshit. She was born in a village called Bhambla in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh.Her family was initially in Shimla and then moved to Chandigarh. She did her schooling in Chandigarh from DAV model school Sector 15 before moving to Shimla. She completed her high schooling in Shimla. She appeared for Medical Entrance test but failed and could not become a doctor. She then moved to Delhi to become a model and theatre actor. She graduated with Bachelor's degree in Science from Delhi in March 2005.
She also joined the Elite Modelling Agency situated in Delhi in 2003 with the prospect of becoming a model but was not successful and hence left it before prosperous. Kangana then joined Asmita Theatre group during 2003-2005 as a theatre actor before relocating to Mumbai. She came to Mumbai in early 2004 and struggled initially to get into movies so went back to Delhi to complete her education. She also joined Asha Chandra's acting school in 2004 to brush herself to face camera. After struggling for nearly two years she met Anurag Basu in September 2005 and was selected for Gangster.
She is currently dating Adhyayan Suman.