Chairul Tanjung was born in Jakarta. His parents were A.G. Tanjung and Halimah. He was born in a very rich family, because his father was a reporter and established a magazine company. In new order era, his father’s business got shut down by the government for helping the old order era. His family economy turns 180 degrees where their big house and cars were sold to cover debt and for a living, they must live in a tiny apartment. His parents wanted their children to be successful so they worked in a company. Chairul finished the Boedi Oetomo senior high school in 1981. He obtained a bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Indonesia. He became the national noble student in 1984 and 1985. While studying, he and his two friends started a shop that sold books and T-shirts then they rapidly became a big shop selling doctors and laboratories equipment. In his spare time he conducted business until he drops-out of the dentistry school and established PT CT Corp with 150 million rupiah of assets borrowed from Exim Bank. They produced shoes for kids and got an order making 160 pairs of shoes to Italy, but a month after the order, he separated from his two friends because he has a different thinking about business. He later became the chairman and founder of CT Corp, along with the late founder of Sony, Akio Morita.

He worked with Hasbi Hafani to establish the business. He bought Bank Karman and changed its name to Bank Mega. He expanded his business interests into insurance and securities. Chairul is now involved in the television business; he founded Trans TV and acquired TV 7 from the Kompas-Gramedia Group. Chairul owns property projects such as Bandung Super Mall, Batam Indah Prospertindo, Para Bali Propertindo, and Mega Indah Propertindo. In 2012, he bought a minority share of Garuda Indonesia. His holding company is CT Corp., formerly Para Group, with 3 subholdings: