Jeh Charles Johnson was born in New York City in 1957. He graduated from Morehouse College in 1979 before receiving his law degree from Columbia Law School in 1982.

Johnson began his career as an attorney in private practice before moving onto national security and law enforcement. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1989 to 1991. Johnson then entered private practice as a trial lawyer at the New York City-based law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. In 1998, President Clinton appointed Johnson General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force. He held this position until 2001, when he returned to private law practice. 

Prior to joining the Department of Homeland Security, Johnson served in the Obama administration as General Counsel for the Department of Defense, where he served as the chief legal officer of the Department of Defense and the legal adviser to the Secretary of Defense. He was sworn in on December 23, 2013, as the fourth Secretary of Homeland Security.