Tina Ruland was born on October 9, 1966 in Cologne. After graduating from high school in 1987, she first completed an apprenticeship as a real estate agent in Ratingen-Hösel. She became well-known in March 1988 in the men's magazine Playboy, which elected her "Playmate of the Month". In October of the same year, Ruland appeared as the background singer of the band Bad Boys Blue in the ZDF Hitparade, at the time a popular charts show. In May 1990 she again appeared as a model in Playboy.   

Tina Ruland made her TV debut in 1991 in an episode of the series "Die lieben Verwandten", followed by her first appearance on the big screen, which was a leading role: in the comedy "Manta Manta" (1991) she played hairdresser Uschi, whose friend (Til Schweiger) belongs to a clique of Opel Manta fans. With about 1.2 million viewers, the film was a great success.   

Since then Ruland has appeared in numerous television productions. Initially, she mainly took on guest roles in series, for example in "Schloß Hohenstein - Irrwege zum Glück" (1992-93) and "Ein Fall für zwei" (1994). In Menahem Golan's "Die Tunnelgangster von Berlin" ("Superbrain", 1996, TV) she had a leading role as a bank employee alongside Oliver Reed. In the family series "Nicht von schlechten Eltern" she was a regular from 1993 to 1998. In the Czech-German feature film production "Der Feuervogel" ("The Firebird", 1996) she appeared in a leading role as a princess. Marc Rothemund cast her as a seductive math teacher in the successful teenage comedy "Harte Jungs" ("Ants in the Pants", 2000). This remained for many years Ruland's last appearance on the big screen.  

After the end of the successful series "Nicht von schlechten Eltern" in 1998, she also appeared in TV movies, mostly comedies, romances and family dramas for public broadcaster ARD. Among them Margarethe von Trotta's comedy "Mit fünfzig küssen Männer anders" (1999), Wolf Gremm's romantic comedy "Ein Liebhaber zu viel ist noch zu wenig" (2002), the dramedy "Was heißt hier Oma! (2005), the family drama "Vater aus Liebe" (2008) and the family comedy "Plötzlich Onkel" (2009). In these productions she often played strong, self-confident women who have to stand up against all kinds of adversity. She appeared alongside Ruth Maria Kubitschek in five films: "Die Hochzeit meiner Töchter" (2006), "Das Wunder der Liebe" (2007), "Mamas Flitterwochen" (2008) and "Wunschkinder und andere Zufälle" (2003), all directed by Thomas Jacob, as well as the romantic drama "Sommerlicht" (2011) directed by Wolf Gremm.  

In 2013, Ruland participated in another photo shoot for Playboy: "Here is a 46 year old woman, who is completely with herself and all parts of her are the same age," she said in an interview at the time.  

In the next few years, she was again primarily involved in series, among them "Das Traumschiff" ("The Dream Ship", 2014) and "Inga Lindström" (2016). She played a doctor in eight episodes of "Matterns Revier" (2015-2016) and was a regular in the comedy series "Blockbustaz - Welcome to the Hood" (2018).