Marcus Herdener studied medicine at the University of Freiburg (Germany).

He completed his training as psychiatrist and psychotherapist at the University Hospitals of Basel and Bern, and the University of Basel. Then (supported by stipends from the SNF, SSMBS and Max Planck Society) he was a visiting scientist at the Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen (Germany), before he joined the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Zurich, where he is Head of the Center for Addictive Disorders.