Khan was born in the district Dera Ismail Khan Tehsil Tank (till 1992) N.W.F.P. now KPK province of Pakistan. Her father Rehmat Khan was a Pakistani, an ethnic Pashtun and her mother Anna Rehmat was of English descent but settled in Pakistan. Also, she is the grandniece of Nawab of Tank. Her father worked for the Pakistan Air Force and the family had to relocate almost every two years depending upon his job assignment. So she said in an interview, as a result of this situation, that she did not have long-term childhood friends. Marina Khan made her debut in a PTV drama in honor of Rashid Minhas Shaheed, Pakistan's national hero from the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. Later, she received her real breakthrough from the drama serial Tanhaiyaan in 1985. "Marina Khan rose to fame with Tanhaiyaan, which became a tremendous hit amongst Pakistani audiences. "However, later Marina took up directing and production as parts of her profession and also had her own cooking show.

Currently, She is settled in Karachi also remains the goodwill representative of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). She hosted the show Marina Mornings on ARY Digital. In 2016 she appeared in Mehreen Jabbar's short film Lala Begum. The film was premiered at Mosaic International South Asian Film Festival on 6 August 2016 under the Zeal for Unity banner. She later made a cameo appearance in Punjab Nahi Jaongi (2017) and appeared in reoccuring roles in Na Maloom Afraad 2 (2018), and Parwaaz Hai Junoon (2018). In the same year she appeared in Mehreen Jabbar's Eid telefilm Hum Chale Aaye. As for television, Khan is currently active in Urdu television industry being appeared in various television dramas. Her most recent appearances includes Jackson Heights (2014), Kaif-e-Baharan (2018), Noor-ul-Ain (2018), Qaid (2018), Dil Kiya Karey (2018) and Bandish (2019).