C. J. Tudor was born in Salisbury and grew up in Nottingham, where she still lives with her partner and young daughter. She left school at sixteen and has had a variety of jobs over the years, including trainee reporter, radio scriptwriter, shop assistant, ad agency copywriter and voiceover. In the early nineties, she fell into a job as a television presenter for a show on Channel 4 called Moviewatch.
While writing her sensational debut novel, Тhe Chalk Man, she ran a dog-walking business, walking over twenty dogs a week as well as looking after her little girl.