Jalili was born in 1965 in Mashhad and is ethnically Persian. He was born in northeastern Homeland. His father, Mohammad Hasan Muallem, was the principal of Nawab Safavi Primary School in Mashhad. He married with Fatemeh Sajjadi, a doctor of internal medicine, in 1992. They have one child, a son named Sajad. Jalili was a resident of Karaj until 2004. Vahid, Jalili’s brother, is one of the fundamentalist cultural activists. Jalili is familiar with English and Arabic languages. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Imam Sadeq University and his doctoral thesis entitled “The Paradigm (Foundation) of Political Thought of Islam in the Qu’ran” was later developed into a book by the name of “The Foreign Policy of the Prophet (Prophet Muhammad).” After graduating, he served in the Iran–Iraq War as a member of the Basij volunteers of the Revolutionary Guards. During the fighting, he was injured severely, losing the lower portion of his right leg in 1986.He has taught political science since 2000 in different intervals at Imam Sadeq University.