Akkineni Nagarjuna was born to one of the great movie star Akkineni Nageswraa Rao and Annapurna. Nagarjuna completed his school at Hyderabad Public School and after went to Little Flower Junior College to do his Intermediate. After that, he went on to Mechanical Engineering in College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai (also called as Anna University). After that he went to University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he got the Masters Degree in Automobile Engineering.

He is married to Amala (who is more popular with Social service and as well as acting). He has two sons, Naga Chaitanya, and Akhil Akkineni (who acted in Sisindri)

The first movie he acted is ‘Vikram’ which was released on 23rd May 1986 which was a remake of the Hindi Movie ‘Hero’. After acting in four films, he acted in ‘Majnu’ as a tragedy hero; similar roles were known to be his father's forte. He acted with his father in the movie ‘Collectorgari Abbayi’. His first big hit was ‘Akhari Poraatam’ co-starring that ran for 100 days in 12 centers. ‘Geethanjali’ is a love story directed by Maniratnam followed by ‘Shiva’ an action packed film directed by Ram Gopal Varma were highly successful and established him as one of the top heroes. He was known for encouraging new directors such as Ram Gopal Varma by giving them a chance to make movies with him. He also made his Bollywood debut with the Hindi remake of ‘Shiva’. Movies such as ‘President Gari Pellam’ and ‘Hello Brother’ gave him the status of a mass hero. After that, ‘Ninne Pelladutha’ directed by Krishna Vamsi followed and was a huge hit. Later, he took up the challenge of portraying Annamacharya, the legendary singer/poet of medieval times in the movie ‘Annamayya’ It ran for 100 days in 42 centers and is one of the biggest hits in Tollywood. He won the National Award for this role in Special Jury. He is the only actor in Tollywood to receive this award.

In 2004, Nagarjuna had two releases, ‘Nenunnanu’ and ‘Mass’, the latter going on to become a hit. In 2005, Nagarjuna had one release, ‘Super’. Super didn't reach upto the exceptations. In 2006, Nagarjuna had two releases, ‘Sri Ramadasu’ a period film based on the life of great saint-composer Ramadasu, directed by K.Raghavendra Rao and Boss. ‘Sri Ramadasu’ was a big hit at box office however ‘Boss’ was a flop. His next project is ‘Don’, which is directed by Raghava Lawrence.

He revived his father's production Annapurna Studios which has become one of the most successful production companies of recent times in Tollywood.

Nagarjuna never hesitates to experiment when he produces films. He gave a chance to a newcomer who had no prior experience in movies to direct him. The newcomer didn't disappoint him and went on to become one of the finest directors of Indian film industry. The director is none other than Ram Gopal Verma. Nag is also known for his swiftness in decision making. He agreed to work with Krishna Vamsi(director) after seeing 10-minute-rushes of the director's film Gulabi. His decision proved to be bang on target as they made the blockbuster movie Ninne Pelladuta.

Nagarjuna never works after 6pm. If there is night shoot, he has to be informed 4 days earlier.

Nag is not very keen on acting in Tamil films despite the fact that he has a huge fan following in Tamilnadu. His films like Geetanjali and Shiva had seen excellent runs in Tamilnadu. His re-entry in Tamil however was marred by the listless performance of the movie, Ratchagan. Nag however got raving reviews for his performance in Ratchagan and the screenplay / story of the movie was a letdown.