Golden was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the son of Ruth (née Sulzberger) and Ben Hale Golden.[1][2] His mother was Jewish. His father was not.[1] Through his mother he is a member of the Ochs-Sulzberger family.[1] His mother was a daughter of long-time New York Times publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger and granddaughter of New York Times owner and publisher Adolph Ochs.[3] His parents divorced when he was eight years old. His father died five years later. He was raised in Lookout Mountain, Georgia and attended Lookout Mountain Elementary School in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee.

Golden's most well-known novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, was written over a six-year period. The novel was re-written in its entirety three times during its development. Golden changed the point of view with each re-write, eventually settling on Sayuri's perspective. During research for the novel, Golden conducted interviews with a number of geisha, including famous ex-geisha Mineko Iwasaki. After the Japanese edition of the novel was published, Golden was sued by Iwasaki for breach of contract and defamation of character, with Iwasaki alleging that Golden had agreed to protect her anonymity if she was interviewed about her life as a geisha, due to the traditional code of silence held between geisha in regard to their clients. The lawsuit was settled out of court in February 2003.[4]