Kader Khan was born on October 22, 1937, in Kabul, Afghanistan, into a Sunni Muslim family of the Kakar tribe. His family migrated to Mumbai, India, in 1942 due to the tragic deaths of his siblings and a belief that their residence in Afghanistan was cursed. Raised in the Kamathipura neighborhood of Mumbai, he completed his education at Ismail Yusuf College, earning a Master's degree in Civil Engineering. Before entering the film industry, Khan worked as a professor of civil engineering at M. H. Saboo Siddik College. He married Azra Khan in the early 1970s and had three children, including notable actor Sarfaraz Khan. Kader Khan passed away on December 31, 2018, at the age of 81 due to complications from progressive supranuclear palsy.