Lloyd Jones was born in 1955 in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, which has become a frequent setting and subject for his subsequent works of fiction. He studied at Victoria University and has worked as a journalist and consultant, as well as a writer.

His notable novels include Biografi (1993), Choo Woo (1998), Here At The End of the World We Learn to Dance (2002), Paint Your Wife (2004), and Mister Pip (2007). Mister Pip won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Lloyd Jones is also the author of a collection of short stories, Swimming to Australia (1991). In 2003, he published a children's picture book, Napoleon and the Chicken Farmer, followed by Everything You Need to Know About the World by Simon Eliot (2004), a book for 9-14 year olds. He also compiled Into the Field of Play: New Zealand Writers on Writing.