Jim Guy Tucker was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on June 13, 1943, the son of James Guy and Willie Maude (White) Tucker. He moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, with his family as a child. He grew up there and attended local public schools. He received a bachelor's degree in government from Harvard in 1964 and a law degree from the University of Arkansas Law School in 1968, afterwards joining the Little Rock law firm Rose, Barron, Nash, Williamson, Carroll, and Clay. In 1970 Tucker won his first elected office, prosecuting attorney from the Sixth Judicial District, comprised of Pulaski and Berry counties. He was elected the state’s attorney general in 1972 and 1974. He subsequently was elected to Congress in 1976, replacing the Second Congressional District's Representative Wilbur Mills, who retired after 36 years; Tucker received more than 86 percent of the general election vote in that campaign. In 1978 Tucker entered the campaign for the late Senator John McClellan's vacated Senate seat. Governor David Pryor defeated him in the Democratic primary run-off election.

Following his defeat in the primary, Tucker returned to private law practice. He was elected lieutenant governor in 1990 and became acting governor of Arkansas in December 1992 after Governor Bill Clinton was elected president of the United States. Tucker was elected to the state's highest office in 1994 and served until he resigned on July 15, 1996, following a criminal conviction for misapplication of funds. The case came up during the Whitewater investigation involving former Governor and then-President Bill Clinton and had nothing to do with Tucker's gubernatorial conduct.