A numerical investigation of unsteady magnetohydrodynamic mixed convective boundary layer flow of a nanofluid over an exponentially stretching sheet in porous media, is presented. The transformed, non-similar conservations equations are solved using a robust, explicit, finite difference method (EFDM). A detailed stability and convergence analysis is also conducted. The regime is shown to be controlled by a number of emerging thermophysical parameters i.e. combined porous and hydromagnetic parameter (R), thermal Grashof number (G r ), species Grashof number (G m ), viscosity ratio parameter (K), dimensionless porous media inertial parameter (r), Eckert number (E c ), Lewis number (L e ), Brownian motion parameter (N b ) and thermophoresis parameter (N t ). The flow is found to be accelerated with increasing thermal and species Grashof numbers and also increasing Brownian motion and thermophoresis effects. However, flow is decelerated with increasing viscosity ratio and combined porous and hydromagnetic parameters. Temperatures are enhanced with increasing Brownian motion and thermophoresis as are concentration values. With progression in time the flow is accelerated and temperatures and concentrations are increased. EFDM solutions are validated with an optimized variational iteration method. The present study finds applications in magnetic nanomaterials processing.