Born in Houston, Texas and in Willis, Texas, Luttrell was trained in Buke Ryu, a martial arts form developed and taught by Shihan Steve Hunter in Texas as a teen and well into early adulthood. Luttrell attended Sam Houston State University. He joined Delta Tau Delta fraternity. He began training for the SEALs at age 15 with former United States Army soldier Billy Shelton, who lived nearby. He trained every day with his twin brother, Morgan, and others who aspired to join the military. Shelton trained them using various weight and endurance exercises.

Luttrell joined the United States Navy in March 1999. He began Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training with Class 226 in Coronado, California. He graduated with Class 228 after suffering a fractured femur early in his training. He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2005 with SEAL Team Ten. Prior to Afghanistan, Luttrell had been part of SDV-1. After Operation Red Wings he transferred to SEAL Team Five and deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom doing various operations there.

Operation Red Wing

On June 28, 2005, Luttrell and SEAL Team 10 were assigned to a mission to kill or capture Ahmad Shah (nom de guerre Mohammad Ismail), a high-ranking Taliban leader responsible for killings in eastern Afghanistan and the Hindu-Kush mountains.The SEAL team was made up of Luttrell, Michael P. Murphy, Danny Dietz and Matthew Axelson. Luttrell and Axelson were the team's snipers, with Luttrell also being the team Medic; Dietz was in charge of communications and Murphy the team leader.

Three goat herders stumbled upon the hiding spot of the four SEALs. The men were detained by the team but the SEALs were unable to verify any hostile intent. Murphy, the officer in charge of the SEAL team, put the fate of the goatherds to a vote. Axelson voted to kill the Afghans, and Dietz abstained. Murphy told Luttrell that he would vote the same as him so with his vote it was decided to let the Afghans go, for fear of possible criminal charges back in the United States.

The released herders disappeared and likely immediately betrayed the team's location to local Taliban forces and within an hour the SEALs were engaged in a fire-fight against a force of 80-150 enemy fighters. The SEAL team engaged the Taliban for over two hours in a running fire-fight through the region's hills and valleys.

Team leader Lt. Michael P. Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor for exposing himself to enemy fire to reach higher ground from which to transmit a call for backup. The four-man SEAL team had killed around 70 of the Taliban despite most of them being shot several times but still carried on with the fight, however, Axelson, Dietz and Murphy were eventually killed. Luttrell barely survived after being blown off a cliff by an RPG.

A CH-47 Chinook helicopter was hastily dispatched upon receiving Lt. Murphy's distress call with a force consisting of eight SEALs and eight 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment "Night Stalkers" to rescue the team, but the helicopter was shot down by an RPG upon reaching the site of the battle. All 16 men on the Chinook were killed, including Shane Patton, whose place on Operation Red Wings had been taken by Danny Dietz.

Luttrell was the only survivor of the SEAL team. Badly wounded, he managed to walk and crawl seven miles to evade capture, during which he killed six more Taliban fighters. He was given shelter by tribesmen from Sabri-Minah, a Pashtun village. (This was done because of "Lokhay Warkawa", a Pashtun belief that any stranger in need of shelter must be given it.) The villagers sheltered him and provided medical aid, and refused Taliban demands that Luttrell be turned over to them. After several days one of the village elders trekked twenty miles to a US base to reveal Luttrell's location, and he was finally rescued six days after the battle by US forces.

The target of Operation Redwing, Mohammad Ismail alias Ahmad Shah, survived the American operation but was killed during a firefight with Pakistani police commandos in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in April 2008.

Luttrell returned to the U.S. the following year, and co-authored the New York Times bestseller Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10He separated from the Navy in 2007, and was subsequently granted a temporary medical retirement through the Board for the Correction of Naval Records in 2009 .

In 2008, he spoke at the Celebration of American Values Leadership Forum at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting. Shortly before addressing the NRA Luttrell was arrested in New York following an altercation in which he physically assaulted a man with whom he was having a political disagreement. Luttrell proudly described the incident in the NRA speech.

As part of Luttrell's recuperation he was given a puppy. He named the dog DASY. Each letter of the name "DASY" represents one of the members of his team...Danny Dietz, Matthew "Axe" Axelson, Southern boy (Marcus), and Michael "Yankee" Murphy. She was given to him in recovery to help him through rehabilitation.

On April 1, 2009, four teenage males approached Luttrell's property and killed his yellow Labrador puppy, Dasy, with a .357 Magnum revolver at approximately 1 A.M. Luttrell proceeded to chase the individuals through four counties in his truck armed with two 9 mm Berettas...until Onalaska Police apprehended the individuals. Upon arrest, the suspects verbally threatened Luttrell's life and taunted him. Alfonso Hernandez was arrested on-scene for driving without a valid drivers license and later charged with animal cruelty. Michael Edmonds turned himself in on April 7, was booked, and posted bond on the same charge. The other two individuals were not indicted. The males are also suspects in the killings of other neighborhood dogs. As of July 2010 Hernandez and Edmonds have not had a court date set and are still pending trial and/or a court decision for final disposition of these charges.

In 2010, Luttrell established the Lone Survivor Foundation. Headquartered in Huntsville, Texas the foundation's mission is to "...go to extraordinary lengths to welcome home, empower and restore American wounded warriors, their families and surviving families as well as CALL Hometown USA TO ACTION to inspire the American Public to Pay It Forward." The vision is to "...provide therapeutic and unique opportunities to optimize recovery and healing our American Patriots — Our Wounded Warriors, Their Families, and Surviving Families. At the center of the foundation is the Lone Survivor Ranch. In a Texas ranch setting of at least 3,000 acres, the Lone Survivor Ranch will provide holistic care to returning soldiers.