Christopher Anthony John Martin was born on 2 March 1977 in Exeter, Devon, England, and is the oldest of five children. His father, Anthony John Martin, of Whitestone House, Exeter, is a retired chartered accountant, and his mother, Alison Martin who hails from Zimbabwe, is a music teacher. His family’s caravan and motorhome sales business, Martins of Exeter, was founded by his grandfather John Besley Martin, CBE (a High Sheriff-also Mayor in 1968 of Exeter), in 1929, sold by his father to a former employee in 1999. William Willett, the man who campaigned for and made daylight saving time a recognised practice, was Martin’s great-great-grandfather. Martin’s paternal aunt Elisabeth Jane (daughter of John Besley Martin) married Hon. Julian George Winston Sandys, son of Conservative politician Duncan Sandys by his wife Diana Churchill, daughter of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The Conservative politician David Martin is his paternal uncle.

While studying at University College London, Martin met Jonny Buckland and the two decided to form a band, with Martin as lead singer and Buckland as lead guitarist. They were joined by Guy Berryman as their bass player and Will Champion as their drummer. In 1996, they formed the rock band Coldplay, originally known as Pectoralz, later changed to Starfish temporarily until finally they were offered the name Coldplay by another band who did not want the name anymore.

Since the release of their debut album Parachutes in 2000, the band has had internationally recognised fame and success. Their song “Yellow”, from Parachutes, entered the charts at Number 4 and carried Coldplay to their aforementioned fame. To date, they have released eight studio albums in total including Parachutes, A Rush of Blood to the Head, X&Y, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, Mylo Xyloto, Ghost Stories, A Head Full of Dreams, and Everyday Life. They also released several EP’s at the beginning of their creation including Safety and The Blue Room.

Martin has been particularly outspoken on issues of fair trade and has campaigned for Oxfam’s Make Trade Fair campaign. He travelled to Ghana and Haiti to meet farmers and view the effects of unfair trade practices. When performing he usually has variations of “Make Trade Fair”, “MTF” or an equal sign written on the back of his left hand and the letters “MTF” can be seen emblazoned on his piano. He was a vocal critic of US President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. During the Teenage Cancer Trust show at London’s Royal Albert Hall on 24 March 2003, he encouraged the sell-out crowd to “sing against war”. He was a strong supporter of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, most notably during his acceptance speech for the 2004 Grammy Awards Record of the Year, accepting for “Clocks”. He supported Obama for president in 2008, giving a shout-out at the end of a performance of “Yellow” on 25 October 2008 episode of Saturday Night Live.

Martin and American actress Gwyneth Paltrow married on 5 December 2003, in a quiet ceremony in the presence of their friends and family. Their daughter Apple was born in May 2004 in London. Martin and the band released a song “I am your baby’s daddy” under the name “the Nappies” in anticipation of her birth. The band’s song “Speed of Sound” was also inspired by Martin’s experience and awe at becoming a father. Their second child, a son named Moses, was born in April 2006 in New York City. Moses’ name was inspired by a song that Martin wrote for Paltrow. Simon Pegg and Martin’s bandmate Jonny Buckland are his daughter’s godfathers, and Martin is godfather to Pegg’s daughter.

Martin has written songs for a variety of acts including Embrace (“Gravity”) and Jamelia (“See It in a Boy’s Eyes”, co-written with Coldplay producer Rik Simpson). Martin has also collaborated with Ron Sexsmith, Faultline, the Streets, and Ian McCulloch. He also sang a part of the vocals for the Band Aid 20 single, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” at the end of 2004. In 2005, Martin collaborated with Nelly Furtado on the track “All Good Things (Come to an End)”, for her 2006 album, Loose. The two were once rumoured to be a couple, after they both performed at Glastonbury in 2002. Nelly Furtado joked about it, saying, “Yeah, he’s my boyfriend—he just doesn’t know it yet”.

Martin is very vocal about his love for Norwegian new wave/Synthpop band a-ha. In 2005 he stated the following in an interview: “I found myself in Amsterdam the other day and I put a-ha’s first record on. I just remembered how much I loved it. It’s incredible songwriting. Everyone asks what inspired us, what we’ve been trying to steal from and what we listened to as we were growing up—the first band I ever loved was a-ha.” Martin has also performed live together with Magne Furuholmen of a-ha, introducing him as “the best keyboard player in the world”. In November 2011, he stated that “back when we didn’t have any hits of our own we used to play a-ha songs.”

Coldplay performed R.E.M.’s “Nightswimming” with Michael Stipe during their Austin City Limits performance in 2005, as a part of the Twisted Logic Tour. Martin went on to call “Nightswimming” “the greatest song ever written”. He has called Richard Ashcroft, formerly of the Verve, “the best singer in the world”. He also admires the lyrics of Morrissey.

PETA named him the World’s Sexiest Vegetarian in 2005. However, he began eating meat again after his split with Gwyneth Paltrow. Martin is a supporter of Exeter City. According to an article released by Quartz in May 2018, Martin has an estimated wealth of £94 million.

Martin’s fascination with hip hop was shown in mid-2006 when he collaborated with rapper Jay-Z for the rapper’s comeback album Kingdom Come after the two met earlier in the year. Martin put some chords together for a song known as “Beach Chair” and sent them to Jay-Z who enlisted the help of hip-hop producer Dr. Dre to mix it. Coldplay producer Rik Simpson conceived and performed the drum beats. The song was performed on 27 September 2006 by the two during Jay-Z’s European tour at Royal Albert Hall. Martin has also worked on a solo collaboration with Kanye West, with whom he shared an impromptu jam session during a 2006 concert at Abbey Road Studios. He performed the chorus of “Homecoming”, from Kanye West’s album Graduation.

Martin and Coldplay guitarist Jonny Buckland made cameo appearances in the film Shaun of the Dead as supporters of the fictional charity ZombAid, with Martin having a second cameo in the film as a Zombie. In 2006 Martin had a cameo role in the second series, episode four, of the Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant created comedy Extras. He also appears singing in the closing credits of the 2009 Sacha Baron Cohen film Brüno; along with Bono, Sting, Slash, Snoop Dogg, and Elton John.

On 1 April 2006 The Guardian reported that Martin was backing the British Conservative Party leader David Cameron, and had written a new theme song for the party titled “Talk to David”. This was later revealed to be an April Fool’s joke. While touring Australia in March 2009, Martin and the rest of Coldplay were the opening act at the Sound Relief benefit concert at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney, for the victims of bushfires and floods in Victoria and Queensland. Martin appeared in a video for the “Robin Hood Tax” campaign, which proposes a tax on stock trades in the United States. This tax is aimed at levelling the field between the 1% and 99%. In June 2016, Martin supported Vote Remain in the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.

In 2008, Coldplay released an alternate music video for Viva la Vida directed by Anton Corbijn as a tribute to the Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence”, one, directed by Corbijn himself in 1990. It shows Martin dressed as a king like Dave Gahan did in the original video. The band stated: “This is our attempt at a video cover version, made out of love for Depeche Mode and the genius of Anton Corbijn”.

On 12 December 2012, Martin performed three songs, including “Losing My Religion” with Michael Stipe, as a part of the “12 12 12 Concert” which was held as a fundraiser for Hurricane Sandy relief. On 15 November 2014, Martin joined charity group Band Aid 30, performing alongside British and Irish pop acts on the latest version of the track “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, to raise money for the 2014 Ebola crisis in Western Africa—this was the second time Martin has contributed to a Band Aid recording having performed in the 2004 version.

Martin is also known to be a fan of the English rock bands Oasis and Muse, Irish pop group Westlife, English-Irish girl group Girls Aloud, English pop group Take That, and Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. In 2014, Martin inducted Peter Gabriel into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his solo career, and performed live with the former Genesis lead singer. Martin is also close friends with the musical couple Jay-Z and Beyoncé.

Martin and Paltrow announced their separation as a “conscious uncoupling” in March 2014, after ten years of marriage. Paltrow filed for divorce in April 2015. A judge finalised it on 14 July 2016.

In 2015, Martin collaborated with DJ Avicii to work on two new tracks for his album, Stories. Their first collaboration was officially named “Heaven”. Martin wrote the lyrics, Avicii did the production, and Simon Aldred of Cherry Ghost was the vocalist. He also provided the vocals for Avicii’s True Believer, also in Stories. In September 2016, the Chainsmokers shared two short clips of an upcoming song featuring vocals from Martin. The song, “Something Just like This”, was released on 22 February 2017, reaching number 2 in the UK Singles Chart and number 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

In March 2015, Martin attended the televised launch of music streaming service Tidal via a video link, and revealed himself, along with other notable artists, as a shareholder in the company. In June 2015, Martin performed “Til Kingdom Come” at the funeral Mass of Beau Biden, son of United States Vice-President Joe Biden, after learning that Biden was a fan of his. In August 2017, Martin performed a live solo piano rendition of “Crawling” by Linkin Park. The performance was a tribute to Linkin Park’s lead singer Chester Bennington, who died by suicide the previous month.

Martin became the creative director of the newly established Global Citizen Festival in 2015, a role he plans to fulfil for 15 years.

In February 2017, Martin performed “A Different Corner” at the 2017 Brit Awards in tribute to George Michael. A song he co-wrote called “Homesick” appears on Dua Lipa’s self-titled debut album, which was released in June 2017. In 2019, Martin was featured on Avicii’s posthumous album Tim. The song “Heaven” features vocals by Martin and was written by Avicii and Martin prior to Avicii’s death.

In 2020, he endorsed the American “defund the police” movement.

In February 2020, a cassette tape was discovered by a former fellow pupil of Martin’s. It contained a three-minute instrumental piece entitled “Electric Thunder”, which was composed by Martin, aged 12, at Exeter Cathedral School. Martin played keyboards on the track, with other pupils in a group called Grandisson Ensemble. The cassette was expected to make up to £600 at auction.