Judge Perry M. Buckner was born in Walterboro, South Carolina in 1949. His parents, Perry M. Buckner, Jr. and Dorothy Graham Buckner, are deceased.

He graduated from Walterboro High School in 1967 and received a BA cum laude in 1971 from Wofford College, and his J. D. cum laude in 1975 from the University of South Carolina School of Law, Columbia, South Carolina. While at Wofford, he was a member of Kappa Alpha Order, and joined Army ROTC receiving his commission as a 2nd Lt. USAR in 1971.

He began his legal career as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of South Carolina in 1975, went into private practice in 1979 with the Wise & Cole Law Firm in Charleston, South Carolina, but returned to his hometown in 1981 as a partner in the firm then known as Smoak, Moody, Buckner & Siegel until 1986, when he opened his own office practicing in criminal law (until 1997), civil trial litigation, family law, and probate law. He also served as Assistant Solicitor for the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit from 1997 until June 2000, when he was elected to the Circuit Court Bench.

Judge Buckner has been a member of the South Carolina Bar Association, Colleton County Bar Association, South Carolina Trial Lawyers Association, South Carolina Defense Trial Attorney's Association, American Trial Lawyers Association, and the American Bar Association. He has been admitted to practice in all South Carolina courts, the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. He was granted membership to the Order of Wig and Robe in 1974. He served in the House of Delegates of the South Carolina Bar, the Judicial Qualifications Committee of the South Carolina Bar, and the South Carolina Bar Nominating Committee. He also served on the local BB&T Advisory Board of Directors, Walterboro, South Carolina until June of 2000, as well as the Medical University of South Carolina Children's Fund Board of Directors, and the Medical University of South Carolina Board of Visitors.

He is formerly a member of South Carolina Law School Alumni Association Board of Directors and Colleton Preparatory Academy, Walterboro, South Carolina, Board of Directors.

He and his wife Janet Hobbs Buckner of Spartanburg, South Carolina, live in Walterboro.  They have two sons, Daniel Graham Buckner who is an attorney at Willson Jones Carter & Baxley, P.A. and Perry M. Buckner IV who is an attorney with Yarborough Applegate Law Firm LLC in Charleston. Judge Buckner is a member of Bethel United Methodist Church, Walterboro, South Carolina.