Born as Rachel Grace Held on June 8, 1981 to her parents Peter and Robin Held, Evans spent her younger years in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1995, at the age of 14, Evans moved to Dayton, TN home of the famous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 when her father was hired for an administrative position at Bryan College. After attending Rhea County High School, Evans attended Bryan College where she met her husband Dan Evans. Evans received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature when she graduated in the spring of 2003 from Bryan College.

In the fall of 2003 Evans married Dan and changed her name to Rachel Held Evans. In 2003 Evans and her husband moved to Chattanooga, TN where they lived for their first year of marriage. During 2003 and 2004 Evans worked as an intern at the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Then in 2004 Evans and her husband moved back to Dayton, TN where she took a full time job at the local paper The Herald News. In 2006, after leaving full time employment with the paper, Evans continued writing pro bono as the paper's humor columnist and in 2007 won the award for "Best personal humor columnGroup II - Non-dailies" from the Tennessee Press Association.

From 2006-2008 Evans worked for herself doing layout, design and public relations for clients in the Dayton, TN area and writing freelance articles for national publications. Additionally, Evans started working on early drafts of her first book. In September 2008, after being rejected by other publishers, Evans signed an agent negotiated contract with Zondervan for her first book Evolving in Monkey Town.