Christian Brando was named after his father's longtime friend French film Director Christian Marquand who later directed Marlon in the film Candy (1968). Christian was born in Los Angeles, California on May 11, 1958, the product of an affair between Marlon Brando and Anna Kashfi, an Anglo-Indian Actress from Wales. Marlon and Kashfi met in 1955, and Kashfi became pregnant in 1957. They married in 1958 and divorced one year later.

As a child, Christian had two small roles in movies: in The Secret Life of an American Wife and I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!, both released in 1968. He appeared in four other films and four made-for-TV productions, sometimes using the alias Gary Brown, between 1980 and 1990. He played a killer in the Sacra Corona Unita (the Quarter Italian Mafia) in the film La Posta in gioco ("The Prize at Stake"), filmed in Southern Italy in 1987.

In 1972, while his father was abroad in France filming Last Tango in Paris, Christian was kidnapped by his mother, who took him from school, then brought him to a gang of hippie friends in Baja California, Mexico. Apparently, she had promised them $10,000 if they would hide Christian away. When she refused to pay, they took and hid the boy; a posse of private detectives hired by Marlon, from an agency named "The Investigators," led by private investigator Jay J. Armes, rescued him late one night. He was found living in a tent and ill with bronchial pneumonia. His mother was arrested near the Mexican border after being pulled over for drunk driving and disorderly behavior. Back in court his father was awarded sole custody.

On May 16, 1990, Brando fatally shot Dag Drollet, the boyfriend of his half-sister Cheyenne in the living room of his father's house in Beverly Hills, California. Drollet was in a four-year relationship with Cheyenne, who was 8 months pregnant by Drollet at the time.

Cheyenne attempted suicide twice during the trial. Then, in 1995, a year before Christian was released from prison, she committed suicide at the age of 25 after losing custody of her son.

Robert Blake and his defense attorneys claimed that Christian Brando was involved in the 2001 murder of Blake's 44-year-old wife Bonnie Lee Bakley. Robert Blake was ultimately charged with his wife's murder and although acquitted in the Criminal trial, he was found liable for her death in the civil case.

Brando's first marriage to Mary Brando ended without acrimony in 1987 after six years; they first met when both were ten years old. On October 16, 2004 in Las Vegas, after a five-year-long relationship, Brando wed Deborah Presley, an Actress who had claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of Elvis Presley. The marriage lasted a short time and was annulled in June 2005 while both were residents of California. Brando pleaded no contest to charges of spousal abuse involving Deborah in January 2005. He was placed on probation and ordered to drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

In December 2005, Deborah filed a lawsuit against Brando in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging spousal abuse involving an incident in Brando's home. Brando counterclaimed for "a Savage beating" during the same incident claiming that she broke into his home and beat him because he wanted to annul their marriage only 10 weeks after exchanging vows. They stayed in contact while Christian was sent to a treatment center for his drug abuse/use. The case was not settled as Christian Brando died and his estate never settled with Deborah.

Brando was buried on February 17, 2008 at the Kalama Oddfellows Cemetery in Kalama, Washington.

Brando was called as a witness in actor Robert Blake’s civil trial but refused to testify, invoking his Fifth Amendment constitutional rights. Brando's behavior in court got him a contempt of court charge and conviction.