The band was originally founded by Johnny Silverhand and Kerry Eurodyne, though the group's name was coined by Nancy Hartley, inspired by fact that historical samurai were willing to die for their cause, even if it was immoral or just plain wrong. Nancy thought that kind of blind loyalty was very stupid, and so she decided to take the name and turn it around into a "street" meaning as a form of mockery. Johnny and Kerry simply thought it sounded cool.

Samurai started as a back-street band, playing in various bars and clubs around Night City, such as the Palladium, Destiny, or Nexus. Their first gig ever was played at the Red Dirt bar.

One night in 2003, after playing in the Rainbow Cadenza, the band was approached by a blitzed 'dorpher, who offered to sign them after witnessing their impressive act; this man turned out to be none other than Jack Masters, the head executive at Universal Music at the time. Within three weeks, Samurai was signed, had a record in production, and was preparing to tour every major city in the world. It took only these three weeks for their first single, "Blistering Love," to achieve #1 hit on the EuroCharts, which soon they followed up with the album, being one of the few times a debut album achieved such status in such a short time.

During the next years, Samurai toured around the world, playing concerts with an audience of thousands of people, even managing to sell out the whole Wembley Stadium. They released a total of six albums — with three being studio work, and the other three being concerts and jam sessions optioned by Universal.

In early 2007, the band suffered a blow that would later be decisive. Nancy (keyboardist) was dating a guy whom she eventually married. The rest of the band members didn't see it at first, but ten weeks after the ceremony they realized Nancy's husband was mistreating her. One day, she finally got the courage to talk about it with the other members after her husband tried to force her to quit Samurai. For Johnny and Kerry that was the last straw, and that same day they decided to go to their apartment to kick his ass, but by the time they got there it was already too late. Nancy's husband had started to beat her again, and she, deciding she'd had enough, threw him out of the window from their 83rd story apartment. Nancy was arrested, and after the trial she was convicted to seven months of prison. During that timespan, the band firmly supported her.

By 2008, Nancy finally got out of jail, focused on returning with the rest of Samurai. Unfortunately, those seven months of inactivity had put a split in the band that they were not able to heal, eventually realizing they were each going on different creative directions. Soon afterwards, they all went on their separate ways.

Henry (bassist) went to work on a human interface prototype, but an accident fried his brain and he had to rebuild his mind. Denny (drummer) joined a band called Mastermind, which went well for her. Nancy decided to change her name to Bes Isis, and went on to become a major media presence on N54 News. Johnny and Kerry went on to have successful solo careers, usually touring together as a double ticket.