Elke Büdenbender was born in the Weidenau district of Siegen on 14 January 1962. She has been married to Frank-Walter Steinmeier since 1995. They have one daughter.

Elke Büdenbender attended intermediate secondary school in Siegen, after which she trained as an industrial clerk at a company of machine building industry in Siegen. She attended Siegerland College in Siegen in 1982 and then worked as a clerk at a logistics company.

In 1985, she began her degree in law at Justus Liebig University in Giessen, where she passed her first state law examination in 1991. From 1987, she worked as a student assistant and later as a research assistant to Professor Brun-Otto Bryde at the Chair of Public Law. She completed her practical legal training at Hanover Regional Court in 1994, when she passed her second state law examination. Thereafter Ms Büdenbender worked as a judge at Hanover Administrative Court. She has been a judge at Berlin Administrative Court since 2000, on leave from March 2017 to April 2022, and part-time since May 2022.