Amala was born in a Christian family on 26 October 1991 in Ernakulam, Kerala to Paul Varghese and Annice Paul.

After completing her schooling from GOVT.HSS Aluva. She took a sabbatical to begin a career in films, but has since joined St. Teresa's College in Kochi, to pursue a BA degree in English.

Her father had been strictly against Amala pursuing an acting career, but was forced to accept her decision with her older brother, Abijith, strongly backing her ambition.

Her first release of 2011 was in a supporting role in the Malayalam drama film, Ithu Nammude Katha, a remake of the successful Tamil film Naadodigal.

Her final release of 2011 was Ram Gopal Varma's Bejawada which marked her début in Telugu language films. The film saw her portray college girl, Geetanjali, and featured her opposite Naga Chaitanya, but the film opened to negative reviews and became a surprise box office failure.

Amala Paul's first release of 2012 was in Linguswamy's multi-starring action entertainer, Vettai, alongside Arya, Madhavan and Sameera Reddy.

In 2013, Amala Paul achieved her first commercial success in Telugu cinema. Her first release in 2013, V. V. Vinayak's directorial Naayak, opposite Ram Charan Teja, went on to be one of the biggest critical as well as commercial success of the year.

Her next film was Puri Jagannadh's romantic comedy Iddarammayilatho opposite Allu Arjun. Upon release, Amala's performance was appreciated by the critics.

Her most recent release was Samuthirakani's Nimirndhu Nil opposite Jayam Ravi, which was simultaneously shot in Telugu as Janda Pai Kapiraju, in which Nani reprised the role of Jayam Ravi.

As early as 2011, when Amala was working on Deiva Thirumagal, she was romantically linked to director A. L. Vijay but denied that the pair were dating.

On June 7, 2014 she got engaged to Vijay at Aluva in Kochi. The couple got married on June 12, 2014 at Mayor Ramanathan Chettiar Hall, Chennai.