Arthur Kohrman was born December 19, 1934 in Cleveland, Ohio to Benjamin and Leah Kohrman. He earned a B.S from the University of Chicago in 1955 and a M.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1959. Following a rotating internship and a residency in pediatrics and in infectious diseases at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital, Kohrman became a senior resident at the University Hospitals of Cleveland. He also served a captain in the U.S. Air Force, was chief of pediatrics at the 7333rd USAF Hospital in France, and spent two years as a consultant in pediatrics to the surgeon general of the USAF.

From 1967 to 1968, he was an instructor in Stanford University’s Department of Pediatrics and Human Development. In August 1958, he was hired as an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development at Michigan State University. In 1970, Kohrman was named director of the pediatric endocrine clinic, and in 1972 associate chair of human development. He was appointed associate dean for educational programs at the College of Human Medicine in 1978. In 1980, he left MSU to become a Congressional Fellow with the Office of Technology Assessment, a congressional board.