He was born in Moscow, USSR (now Russia).
He was selected to become a cosmonaut in 1960 with the first cosmonaut group. After being the backup for Pavel Popovich on Vostok 4, his first spaceflight was with the Voskhod 1 mission. On his second flight, Soyuz 1, he was killed when the spacecraft crashed due to failure of the parachute.
Komarov was married and had two children.