He was born on February 2, 1953 to Wesley and Barbara Chapman. He is the oldest of four children, with two younger sisters and one brother; however, according to Chapman, everyone is his "brother". He is German on his mother's side and English on his father's side. His mother was a pastor for the Assemblies of God, who instilled Christian morals in her son.

Chapman's first child, Christopher Michael Hecht, is from a teenage relationship with Debbie White. Chapman was not aware of the child's existence, and Christopher was adopted after White's suicide. Upon reaching adulthood, Christopher was reunited with his father when his grandmother contacted Chapman to tell him he had a grown son. Chapman married La Fonda Sue Honeycutt on April 1, 1972, in Pampa, Texas; they divorced October 27, 1977, while he was in prison. They had two children together, Duane Lee Chapman II and Leland Chapman. Although the boys were not allowed to see their father for several years, they began rebuilding a relationship when they were 11 and 8 years old. Later, when they began getting into trouble as teenagers, Chapman obtained custody of them.

In 1976, Chapman was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to five years in a Texas prison. He had been waiting in a car when his friend accidentally shot and killed alleged pimp and drug dealer Jerry Oliver, 69, in a struggle during a deal to buy cannabis.

Chapman married Anne M. Tegnell on August 22, 1979, in Colorado. They were divorced, according to court records, on August 5, 1982.(divorce and next marriage dates do not coincide) Three children resulted from this marriage: Zebediah Duane Chapman, Wesley Chapman, and J.R. "James" Chapman. Zebediah died shortly after birth in 1980. Wesley and J.R. were raised by their mother in Utah.

Chapman married Lyssa Rae Brittain on June 22, 1982. They were divorced on November 20, 1991. That marriage resulted in three children: Barbara Katie "B.K" Chapman, (1982–2006), Tucker Dee Chapman, and Lyssa "Baby Lyssa" Rae Chapman. Chapman retained custody of the children as they grew up, although the girls went to live with their mother as young teenagers. Barbara Katie died in a car accident in Fairbanks, Alaska in 2006, the day before her father's wedding to Beth Smith.

Chapman and Tawny Marie were married in 1992, but filed for divorce in 1994. Court records show they were officially divorced in 2002. Tawny had a daughter from a prior marriage, but no children with Chapman. Chapman later said, "Tawny coerced me into marrying her. I told her I didn't want to marry her because I liked women too much to settle down ... I knew in my heart that marrying Tawny was a mistake. She was all wrong for me ... Despite my misgivings, I married Tawny ... It was a disaster from the start."

Chapman, after decades of bounty hunting, was featured on Take This Job, a program about people with unusual occupations. This led him and the show's production company to do a spin-off about his work in capturing bail Fugitives, in particular Chapman's efforts in hunting down Max Factor cosmetics heir Andrew Luster in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. After Luster's jailing, Chapman was interviewed for the August 28, 2003 episode of the truTV television series Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice. By now Chapman's profile had come to the attention of the American public. It was during this time A&E decided to create an ongoing reality series around his bounty hunting job. On August 30, 2004, the first series of Dog the Bounty Hunter made its television debut.

Chapman met his fifth (and current) wife, Alice Elizabeth "Beth" Barmore (née Smith), in 1986 when she was 19. Throughout the next decade, they had an on-and-off romantic relationship, even marrying others. Beth has two children from previous relationships, Dominic Davis (taken into state custody when Beth was 17 years old) and Cecily Barmore-Chapman (from her previous marriage to her first husband, who was Chapman's best friend in high school). In 1995, Chapman and Beth joined forces in Business and life, finally blending their families and moving in together. Beth runs the bail bonds office and goes bounty hunting with her husband, often counseling the detainees. After 16 years together, they married on May 20, 2006, at a Hilton hotel on Waikoloa Village in Hawaii. Besides Beth's daughter Cecily, whom Chapman has adopted, they have two children together, Bonnie Joanne Chapman and Garry Chapman. Dominic rejoined the family as an adult, when Chapman located him for Beth.

On December 21, 2007, Roy Innis, the chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality and a member of the National Rifle Association's governing board, and one of the first to petition the A&E network to have the show taken off the air, met with Alicia Colon of the New York Sun and Chapman. Later Innis said, "After meeting with him and his wife, Beth, and hearing his side of the story, we realized that the controversy had unjustly spiraled out of control without context. Duane has taken ownership of the damage of his words and has taken on the responsibility of being a racial healer for our country... I have been with this man several times and had extensive dialogues with him. I consider him and his wife good friends. Duane is a changed man and has a higher purpose. Popular television is a wasteland of meaningless titillation and degradation. The Dog's potential to take his Celebrity and turn it into something redeeming for our culture and society is immense. It is for these reasons that we want his television show back on the air."

On February 19, 2008, A&E announced that Chapman's TV show would return to production.

His second book, Where Mercy Is Shown, Mercy Is Given was published in 2010.

Recently, Duane Chapman, Beth Chapman, his sons Leland Chapman and Duane Lee Chapman II, and his daughter Lyssa Chapman all worked together as bail bondsmen and bounty Hunters. Their work was the subject of the Dog the Bounty Hunter show, which ran for eight seasons on A&E. The March 21, 2012 episode showed Duane Lee telling Beth “You want me fired, you gotta fire me," and then Leland weighed in, saying "I quit too." In 2012, the two brothers admitted leaving the show. Duane Lee and Leland severed all ties with their family. Afterwards, Leland began operating his own bail bond company on the Big Island of Hawaii and heading Bounty Hunter Tactical Supply Co.

When Beth Chapman was diagnosed with throat cancer in early 2017 Duane decided to share her story with fans. The result was an A&E Special series named "Dog and Beth: Fight of Their Lives," which was premiered on November 27, 2017. Duane documented her doctor's visit, how Beth and Duane shared diagnosis with their family and the gruelling 13-hour surgery to have Stage 2 tumour removed also the aftermath in September 2017.