- Salam was born into a Sunni family in Beirut in 1945. He is the eldest son of Saeb Salam, former prime minister of Lebanon.
- Tammam Salam is a graduate of Broummana High School and Haigazian University in Beirut.
- He travelled to England in 1965, where he received a degree in economics and management, and returned to Lebanon in 1968 and worked in the trade field.
- Salam began his career as a businessman after graduation. He joined politics at the beginning of the 1970s. He established the Pioneers of Reform Movement (Harakat Ruwwad Al Islah) in 1974, but suspended its work with the beginning of the Lebanese war in 1975-1976 to prevent it from turning into an armed movement.
- In 1978, he joined the Makassed foundation in Beirut as a board member and became the president of the foundation in 1982. Salam resigned as president in September 2000.
- He is currently the honorary president of the foundation. Later, he also became the head of the Saeb Salam foundation for culture and higher education.
- He was elected as member of the Parliament representing Beirut in 1996 and 2009, and participated in the works of the Justice and Administration committee.
- He was appointed minister of culture in the cabinet of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on 11 July 2008.
- Salam is married to Lama Badreddine and has three children.