Chandra was born in Adampur, on Hisar district, Haryana. His family had a debt of 3.5 lakh Indian rupees, which he had to repay. His family could not afford his higher education, and in 1965 he dropped out of school to join the family business of commission agents and traders who procured and supplied rice to the Food Corporation of India.

In 1992, he launched Zee TV, the second private commercial television channel in the country in association with Star TV in Hong Kong, and in 2003, Dish TV, the first satellite television provider in India.

Chandra launched India’s first satellite TV channel, Zee TV, in 1992. The channel competes with, among others, Sony Entertainment Television and STAR Plus. Currently, the Zee TV network, consisting up to 90 channels, reach 1.3 Billion people spread over 174 countries.

In 2005, in collaboration with Dainik Bhaskar group, Chandra launched an English-language daily newspaper, DNA, in Mumbai to challenge the well-settled The Times of India. The competition was one of the biggest newspaper battles of Mumbai. Sustaining earlier losses, the newspaper eventually turned around.

On 25 November 2019, Chandra had to resign as chairman of his company Zee Entertainment Enterprises, as per the SEBI Listing Regulations. However, he still continues as a non-executive director of the company.

On 22 May 2020, Essel Group defaulted 616 INR Crore secured NCD Bonds with standstill agreement along with Subhash Chandra Personal Guarantee thus affecting 3,00,000 investors.