Born a Mongol princess of the Ögedeid line

Khutulun was born around the year 1260 into the ruling family of the Ögedeid line of the Mongol Empire, as the favorite daughter of Kaidu Khan, a powerful cousin and rival of Kublai Khan who controlled vast territories in Central Asia.

Her exact birth date is not recorded in surviving sources such as Marco Polo's travelogue or the Yuan Shi, so historians place her birth only approximately in the early 1260s. She grew up on the steppes of Central Asia in a highly militarized and mobile court, where women of the Mongol aristocracy were trained in horsemanship, archery, and wrestling alongside their male counterparts, a cultural feature markedly different from many contemporary sedentary civilizations.

As Kaidu's favorite among his reported fourteen sons and several daughters, Khutulun received unusual latitude to participate in both political and military affairs, accompanying her father on campaigns and advising him in matters of state. This upbringing set the stage for her later renown as an undefeated wrestler and skilled cavalry commander, whose exploits would be recorded by outside observers including Marco Polo and Rashid al-Din, making her one of the few Mongol women of her era whose individual achievements were documented by name in the historical record.