Vinay Rajkumar was born to actor and film producer Raghavendra and Mangala. He is the grandson of actor Rajkumar. He has a younger brother, Guru. The actors Shiva and Puneeth are his uncles. Vinay earned a bachelor's degree in Commerce from St. Joseph's College of Commerce, Bangalore.

Vinay's grandfather, Rajkumar first brought him on-screen at the age of five in the film Aakasmika (1993). Vinay followed this with appearances in Odahuttidavaru (1994), his father's film's Anuragada Alegalu (1993) and Navibbaru Namagibbaru (1993), and uncle Shiva's Om (1995) and Hrudaya Hrudaya (1999).

Vinay studied and trained as an actor in "acting workshops with a couple of people" before "training... in theatre". He subsequently trained in dance and martial arts from trainers of uncles' films.[6] In an interview with The Times of India in 2012, he said he was "involved with the filming of [uncle Puneeth's film] Yaare Koogadali", having already worked in the filming of the latter's previous film Anna Bond (2012)