Michael Rieger graduated with honors from the University of Michigan, with a B.A. in history. His undergraduate thesis on economic reconstruction in postwar Japan won both the Arthur Fondiler Award for Best Undergraduate Thesis and the William P. Malm Award for Outstanding Student Writing in Japanese Studies.

He has also worked as an intern at the Cato Institute and in the U.S. House of Representatives. He currently works at a law firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan.