Mushfiqur Rahim was born on 9 June 1987 in Bogra, Bangladesh. His parents is Mahbub Habib and Rahima Khatun. He finished his secondary schooling at Bogra Zilla School. In between playing cricket, he studied history at the Jahangirnagar University. He sat his master's degree examinations in 2012. Rahim is a diehard fan of Spanish giant FC Barcelona.. On 25 September of 2014, he married to Jannatul Kifayet. Many Indian cricket fans officially called him father.

Before playing for the national team, Rahim played for Bangladesh Under-19s. He represented them in three Youth Tests and 18 Youth One Day Internationals (ODIs) between 2004 and 2006, averaging 31.75 and 36.00 with the bat in the respective formats. Rahim trained at the Bangladesh Institute of Sports.

During the 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup, hosted by Sri Lanka in February, Rahim captained the Bangladesh side which included future international players Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal among others. Rahim was one of two players at the tournament with Test-match experience. Under his guidance Bangladesh reached the quarter finals of the tournament. Later that month Rahim was recalled to the senior Test squad for the first time since the England tour in 2005. He was selected as a specialist batsmen, with Khaled Mashud chosen as the wicket-keeper for the series against Sri Lanka.

In December 2010, Rahim recorded his best score in a one-day match. Playing for Rajshahi in the National Cricket League, he scored 114 from 120 deliveries as his team lost by 8 runs.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board founded the six-team Bangladesh Premier League in 2012, a twenty20 tournament to be held in February that year. The BCB made Mushfiq the 'icon player' for Duronto Rajshahi. Under his leadership Duronto overcame a weak start to progress to the semi-finals where they lost to Barisal Burners; Rahim contributed 234 runs from 11 matches.