Soha Ali Khan was born in the ancient Patudi royal family. She has Pashtun Navvab lineage of Pataudi clan inherited by her father (the first Afghan race) and Hindu Bengali Tagore lineage inherited by her mother. Her father's Mansoor Ali Khan ali khan, now Navvab, and her grandfather iftikhar ali khan are former captains of the Indian cricket team. Her mother, sharmila tagore, is a film actress and the great-granddaughter of Rabindranath Tagore, a Bangladeshi Nobel Prize in Literature winner. Her brother saif ali khan is also a Bollywood film actress, and her sister Saba ali khan is a jewelry designer. During her studies, she studied at British School in New Delhi and Beliol College of Oxford University respectively, and obtained a master's degree in international relations from London School of Economics and Political Science.

Before Soha Ali Khan started her film career, she worked for the Ford Foundation and Citibank. She has participated in activities to get rid of the show business all over the world, including serving on the advisory board and launching a new project for entrepreneurs in Res Publica. Recently, she also modeled for the new spring/summer collection of Globus Indian boutique chain stores. In 2004, Soha Ali Khan made her debut in the Bollywood film Dillman Moore, working with shahid kapoor, Ayesha Tatiya and Tulip Joshi. Her performances in the 2005 Bangladeshi film antar mahar and the 2006 film The Color of Bazati (Invincible Youth) were well received. The movie "Dream of Stars" also won favorable comments for her, although it was not a success at the box office. In 2009, her film "99" won double evaluation and commercial profit, and her performance was well received again. However, the film Mile, which she co-produced with emran hashmi, became a box office poison again, but her performance in the film was still positively affirmed. After the release of her film "Silhouette of Mumbai", she also started to host a program called Godrej Khelo Jeeto Jiyo on Star TV.