Dhoni was born in Ranchi, Bihar (now in Jharkhand) and hails from a Hindu Rajput family to parents from Uttarakhand.^[19][20] He is the youngest of three children of Pan Singh and Devaki Devi.^{[21][22][23][4]} His paternal village Lwali, is in Jainti Tehsil, Lamgara block of the Almora District of Uttarakhand.^[24] His parents moved from Uttarakhand to Ranchi, Jharkhand where his father worked as a pump operator in junior management position in MECON Colony situated in Doranda area in Ranchi.^[25] Unlike Dhoni, his uncle and cousins spell their surname "Dhauni".^[24]

Previously Dhoni was the goalkeeper for his DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir school's football team,^[26] but after seeing his goalkeeping skills, coach Keshav Ranjan Banerjee, one who inspired Dhoni to be a cricketer, picked him to play cricket for his school team.^[27] His exceptional wicketkeeping skills allowed him to become the regular wicketkeeper at the Commando Cricket Club (1995–1998). Based on his performance at club cricket, he was picked for the 1997/98 season Vinoo Mankad Trophy Under-16 Championship, where he performed well.^[4]

From 2001 to 2003, Dhoni worked as a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) at Kharagpur railway station under South Eastern Railway in Midnapore (W), a district in West Bengal.