He was born to a Rajput family in a small town, Nahan, in the Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh (a hill state in India).
He developed an interest in music during his childhood.
He never received formal training in music.
Apart from singing, he also plays guitar and flute very well.
While studying in college, his interest grew in music, and he formed his first music band The Hijackers.
He came from Himachal Pradesh to Delhi in 1993 where he formed a band- Silk Route along with Arpit Gupta.
He tasted his first success after his song- Dooba Dooba from the band Silk RouteтАШs album- Boondein.
His first Bollywood song is Pehli Nazar Mein Dari Thi from the Hindi film- Road (2002).
He met A. R. Rahman at an award function in Delhi where Rahman desired to work along with him and told him that he would give him a call soon. However, it took 5 years for Rahman to call him.
Rahman gave him a chance to sing in the movie Rang de Basanti (2006) in which he sang Khoon Chala. The song proved to be the first success of Mohit in Bollywood.
Mohit Chauhan became a household name after the song- Tum Se Hi from the film Jab We Met (2007).
He has also sung in Bengali and Tamil films. His first Bengali song is for the movie- Sedin Dekha Hoyechilo, and his first Tamil song is- Po Nee Po from the film 3 with Anirudh.
He also sang in a Himachali film- Saanjh (2016).
Apart from playback singing, he has also sung many jingles for products including Nescafe, Wheel (detergent), Parachute, Maruti Suzuki Alto, etc.
He has received Filmfare Award for Best Playback Singer twice for the songs- Masakali from Delhi-6 (2010) and Jo Bhi Main from Rockstar (2012).
On 10 May 2018, Sikkim Government appointed him the Green Ambassador for Sikkim.