After attending the "Heinrich-Hertz" School, Brussig went on to train as a builder. In 1984 he finished school and training, and served in the East German National People’s Army (German: Nationale Volksarmee or NVA). Brussig found it difficult to wield a weapon and had a hard time. He worked as a museum guard, cleaner and hotel porter among a variety of other odd jobs until the early 90s. In 1990 he studied sociology at the Free University of Berlin. He changed universities 3 years later to study the art of film-making. He graduated in the year 2000.

Thomas Brussig commutes back and forth from Berlin to Mecklenburg as a writer and is married.

Brussig's first novel, Wasserfarben ("Watercolors") was published in 1991 under the pseudonym "Cordt Berneburger." In 1995, he published his breakthrough novel, Helden wie wir (Heroes Like Us, FSG 1997), which dealt with the fall of the Berlin Wall. The book was a critical and commercial success and was later turned into a movie. Two movies of his books have been released, "Helden wie wir" and "Sonnenallee".

• 1999: Sonnenallee - Dir. Leander Haußmann (with Detlev Buck, Robert Stadlober, Alexander Beyer)