Martin Paintner-Flörchinger, born October 9, 1909 in Geisenhausen as the son of an actors couple, started to attend drama school at Leipzig’s Schauspielschule in 1929. After his graduation in 1931, he made his stage debut in Leipzig. During the following years, he performed – interrupted by war and captivity – at theatres in Dortmund, Frankfurt, Darmstadt, and Gera, among others. In 1948, he became a cast member of Schauspielhaus Leipzig where he performed in several productions of classic plays. In 1953, Flörchinger went to Berlin, at first to Deutsches Theater, and in 1956 to Berliner Ensemble.

In 1951, Martin Flörchinger made his movie debut in a supporting role in the DEFA production "Die Meere rufen". With his impressive performance in the supporting role as Karl Liebknecht in "Ernst Thälmann – Sohn seiner Klasse" (1954), in particular, he soon became a sought-after leading and supporting actor. During the following decades, he was seen in numerous character roles in the most different genres. He, for instance, played an apparent paragon whose life is thrown out of joint when he falls in love with his beautiful secretary in "Ehesache Lorenz" (1959); in "Seilergasse 8" (1960) he was seen as a sharp-witted police inspector; in Martin Hellberg’s Shakespeare adaptation "Viel Lärm um Nichts" (1964), he played the role of Leonato and in the children’s film "König Drosselbart" ("King Thrushbeard", 1965) Flörchinger was König Löwenzahn alongside Manfred Krug. Twice in his DEFA career, in 1967 and in 1972, Flörchinger was awarded with the German Democratic Republic’s National Award.

In 1976, Martin Flörchinger relocated to West Germany to spend his retirement age in native Bavaria. But his retirement did not hold long: Soon, theatre director Dieter Dorn brought him to Munich’s Kammerspiele. Furthermore, Flörchinger was seen in films like "Die Wildente" ("The Wild Duck", 1976) or "Die gläserne Zelle" ("The Glass Cell", 1978) until the late 1970s. During the 1980s, his appearances in front of the camera decreased. He played his last role in 1996 alongside Veronica Ferres in Dominik Graf’s TV comedy "Doktor Knock". In the same year, he published his new interpretation of Shakespeare’s complete 154 sonnets.

On October 27, 2004, Martin Flörchinger died in Vilsbiburg, Bavaria.