Sarja who was born on 17 October 1980 was the eldest son of Ammaji and Vijay Kumar. He is also the nephew of renowned actor Arjun Sarja who works predominantly in Tamil cinema and grandson of veteran Kannada actor Shakti Prasad. Sarja who has worked on 22 films began his career in the Kannada film industry also known as Sandalwood with the 2009 film Vayuputra in which he played the lead role. The romantic action film which is a remake of the Tamil film Sandakozhi directed by N. Linguswamy earned him the Innovative Film Award for Best Debut (Male).
Most of the films he had worked on were remakes of films of other languages such as the 2013 action film Varadhanayaka, a remake of Telugu film Lakshyam. In the film, he played the younger brother Hari who eventually rescues his family from the criminal Shankar. Sarja also played the lead in the 2013 supernatural thriller Whistle which is a remake of 2012 Tamil blockbuster Pizza. Critics lauded his performance in the film which got positive reviews for its script.
He was also the lead in 2018 Kannada hit film Amma I Love You, a remake of the Tamil film, Pichaikaaran. Critics had praised him for his nuanced performance in the film. Before his untimely death, Sarja was working on several films including Rajamarthanda which is in post-production. Sarja was married to Meghana Raj, who is the daughter of well-known Kannada actors Sundar Raj and Pramila Joshi.