In this paper, we report a new third-order chaotic jerk system with double-hump (bimodal) nonlinearity. The bimodal nonlinearity is of basic interest in biology, physics, etc. The proposed jerk system is able to exhibit chaotic response with proper choice of parameters. Importantly, the chaotic response is also obtained from the system by tuning the nonlinearity preserving its bimodal form. We analytically obtain the symmetry, dissipativity and stability of the system and find the Hopf bifurcation condition for the emergence of oscillation. Numerical investigations are carried out and different dynamics emerging from the system are identified through the calculation of eigenvalue spectrum, two-parameter and single parameter bifurcation diagrams, Lyapunov exponent spectrum and Kaplan–Yorke dimension. We identify that the form of the nonlinearity may bring the system to chaotic regime. Effect of variation of parameters that controls the form of the nonlinearity is studied. Finally, we design the proposed system in an electronic hardware level experiment and study its behavior in the presence of noise, fluctuations, parameter mismatch, etc. The experimental results are in good analogy with that of the analytical and numerical ones.