Goldberg was born in Chicago, Illinois, on October 2, 1967 and grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His mother, Paula Goldberg, is co-founder and executive director of the Pacer Center, and his father, Melvin Bert “Mel” Goldberg (1942–1998), was associate dean and professor at the William Mitchell College of Law. He interned at the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper while in high school. He graduated from Blake School in Minneapolis in 1985, and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1989, majoring in history and government. Goldberg was an enthusiastic Minnesota Vikings fan throughout his life.

Goldberg worked for Bain & Company for two years after graduating from college. He had planned to attend law school but instead joined Capitol Records, where he served as director of marketing strategy and new business development. He founded LAUNCH Media in 1994, and led it through its acquisition by Yahoo Inc. in 2001. He quit Yahoo in 2007 and joined Benchmark Capital. He then joined SurveyMonkey in 2009.

In 2004, Goldberg married Sheryl Sandberg. The couple had two children and lived in Menlo Park, California. Prior to his death, he and Sandberg were active philanthropists, signing The Giving Pledge.

On May 1, 2015, Goldberg died suddenly while vacationing with Sandberg at a private beach-front villa near the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in Punta Mita, Mexico; he was pronounced dead at a hospital in Nuevo Vallarta. Goldberg’s death was initially attributed to falling off a treadmill while exercising at a gym and suffering head trauma and blood loss. Sandberg has subsequently said that her husband’s death was due to an arrhythmia caused by undiagnosed coronary artery disease, and not due to falling from a treadmill.

A memorial service for Goldberg was held at Stanford Memorial Auditorium on the Stanford University campus on May 5, 2015. The 90-minute service was attended by many members of what Fortune described as “the elite of Silicon Valley,” as well as U2 frontman Bono, who performed his song “One,” and actor Ben Affleck. Affleck had worked with Goldberg when he served on the Board of Directors of a company he co-founded called Live Planet and the two had also worked together on The Eastern Congo Initiative, for which Goldberg helped Affleck raise funds.