Pierre Paul Cambon was born on January 20, 1843, in Paris, France, brother of French diplomat Jules-Martin Cambon (1845-1935).

He was a French diplomat. He graduated from the University of Paris in 1866 and was called to the Parisian bar. He joined the Interior Ministry in 1870 and became prefect of the Aube (1872), the Doubs (1876), and the North (1877). In 1882, he transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was appointed resident minister in Tunisia to implement the French protectorate. In 1886, he was appointed ambassador to Spain. From 1891 to 1898, he served as ambassador to Constantinople, where he tried to restore French influence in the Ottoman Empire while working against German interests. In 1898, he became ambassador in Great Britain, a post he held until 1920. Cambon played a major role in negotiating the 1904 Entente Cordiale with Lord Lansdowne, the British foreign secretary, thus beginning and then promoting the process by which Great Britain, France, and Russia became allies in World War I. He was also the French signatory to the Sykes-Picot Agreement. He received the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur and became a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

In 1874, he married Anna Victorine Heloise Guepratte (1851–1898). He died on May 29, 1924, in Paris, France.