John Chamberlain was born on 16 April 1927, in Rochester, Indiana. From 1943-46 he served in the U.S. Navy. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago, 1951-52, before studying at Black Mountain College, North Carolina, 1955-56. His first major solo exhibition was held at the Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, in 1960. In 1964, his work was exhibited at the Venice Biennale.

In 1971, he had a retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. His next major retrospective was in 1986 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. In 1993, Chamberlain received both the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture, from the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine, and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture from the International Sculpture Centre, Washington, D.C. He was elected a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York in 1990 and received the Distinction in Sculpture Honour from the Sculpture Center, New York, in 1999.