Rabbi Elchonon Bunim Wasserman was born on 6 Shevat 5635 (1875) in Biržai, Lithuania, the son of Rabbi Naftali Beinish, a shopkeeper, and Sheina Rachel. In 1890 the family moved to Bauska, Latvia; he studied at the Telz yeshiva under Rabbi Shimon Shkop and Rabbi Eliezer Gordon and, during vacations, attended the classes of Bauska's rabbi, Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook. He later went to study in Brisk under Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik.

In 1899 he married the daughter of Rabbi Meir Atlas, rabbi of Salant. In 1903 he founded the yeshiva of Amstislav in Russia. In 1907 he joined the Chafetz Chaim's Kollel Kodashim in Radin, becoming one of his closest disciples, and in 1910 took charge of the Brisk yeshiva. Between the wars he headed the Ohel Torah yeshiva of Baranovich, which became one of the most important in Poland. He was also one of the leaders of Agudat Yisrael.

His works, Kovetz Shiurim and Kovetz He'arot, are studied in every yeshiva.

In 1941 he was arrested in Kovno with his students by the Nazis. Before he was killed he told them to accept their fate with pure thoughts, so as to be worthy offerings for the sanctification of God's Name. He was murdered on 11 Tammuz 5701 (6 July 1941).