Jaffar Mahmood was born and raised in Toms River, New Jersey. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Tufts University and a Master of Fine Arts in the Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California. The challenges Jaffar faced growing up as a mixed-race person inspired his feature directorial debut, Shades of Ray. Jake Kasdan (New Girl) executive produced the independent film, Zachary Levi (Chuck) starred, and the film won awards at film festivals around the world.

In 2013, Jaffar was selected for the first Warner Bros. directing workshop. From there he moved on to directing and creating Courtside, a short comedic web series that caught the attention of HBO executives. They invited Jaffar to intern on the HBO comedy series On the Brink. In late 2014, Jaffar landed his first directing job on network television, the NBC series About a Boy.