Özcan Arslan was born in 1970 in Tunceli. After completing primary, secondary, and high school education in Tunceli, he graduated from the two-year programm in Electrical Engineering at Fırat University. He was introduced to the bağlama during his high school years. Encouraged and supported by his uncle, Adil Arslan, he successfully passed the audition at the Turkish Music State Conservatory at Gaziantep University. He chose bağlama as his main instrument in the Department of Basic Sciences. During his five years of education, he participated in various concerts and festivals as a member of both the folk music choir and folk dance musician ensembles. After completing his education, he was appointed as a music teacher at a state high school in 1996. Between 1998 and 2000, he taught bağlama lessons at the deutsch-türkischen Musikakademie in Berlin. From 2002 to 2012, he established his own bağlama education center in Tunceli, training hundreds of bağlama students, some of whom successfully passed the auditions at various State Conservatories.

In 2012, he moved to Didim, Aydın province and is currently still working as a high school music teacher.