Aharon Megged was born in 1920 in Włocławek, Poland, and in 1926 immigrated with his parents to Mandate Palestine. He grew up in Ra’anana, attending the Herzliya high school in Tel Aviv. After graduation, he joined a Zionist pioneering youth movement, training at Kibbutz Giv’at Brenner. He was a member of Kibbutz Sdot Yam for twelve years.

Megged, along with a group of writer friends, founded the Masa literary weekly, and was its editor for fifteen years. He worked as a literary editor for the newspapers La-merhav and Davar. From 1968 to 1971 he served as cultural attaché to the Israeli embassy in London. In 1977/78 he was author-in-residence at the Center for Hebrew Studies affiliated with Oxford University. He made several lecture tours of the United States, and was also author-in-residence at the University of Iowa.

He has published 35 books.

His plays have been performed at Habima, Ha-Ohel, and other theaters. His books have been translated into numerous languages and published in the United Kingdom, the United States, Argentina, France, and other countries.