Born in Atlantic, Cass County, Iowa, on 8 February 1874, Frederick Charles Loofbourow was educated in the public schools of Iowa. He moved with his parents to Utah in 1889 and graduated from the Ogden Military Academy in 1892. He received a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1896 and was admitted to practice law in California, Utah, and the Supreme Court of the United States. He commenced his law practice in Salt Lake City in 1896. He married Maude Huntington Reed on 31 October 1901 and was the father of two sons. His wife died in 1930.

Loofbourow served as district attorney of the Third Judicial District of Utah from 1905 to 1911, and as district judge from 1911 to 1916, after which he resumed the practice of law. He was elected as a Republican to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Representative Elmer O. Leatherwood, and on the same day was elected to serve in his own right as representative to Congress. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1930 to early 1933. An unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1932, he resumed the practice of law in Salt Lake City.

He was a member of the Salt Lake Board of Education from 1932 to 1939 and was also very active in the Children's Service Society. He was a member of Masonic Wasatch Lodge No. 1, and was a 33rd-degree honorary Mason. He was also a member of the El Kalsh Temple of the Shrine. After retiring from law practice, he frequently gave lectures on the Gutenberg Bible and demonstrated letterpress printing with movable type. He died in Salt Lake City on 8 July 1949. He remains were cremated and the ashes scattered.