diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/py3-maven_artifact.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/py3-maven_artifact.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e5a34e781a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/py3-maven_artifact.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+- Fix bytes/text handling in maven_artifact that was causing tracebacks on Python3
diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/packaging/language/maven_artifact.py b/lib/ansible/modules/packaging/language/maven_artifact.py
index c1370abab5d..b5f842c7f88 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/packaging/language/maven_artifact.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/packaging/language/maven_artifact.py
@@ -349,8 +349,7 @@ class MavenDownloader:
         if not self.verify_md5(filename, url + ".md5"):
             response = self._request(url, "Failed to download artifact " + str(artifact), lambda r: r)
             if response:
-                f = open(filename, 'w')
-                # f.write(response.read())
+                f = open(filename, 'wb')
                 self._write_chunks(response, f, report_hook=self.chunk_report)
                 f.close()
             else:
@@ -366,19 +365,19 @@ class MavenDownloader:
         if bytes_so_far >= total_size:
             sys.stdout.write('\n')
 
-    def _write_chunks(self, response, file, chunk_size=8192, report_hook=None):
-        total_size = response.info().getheader('Content-Length').strip()
+    def _write_chunks(self, response, filehandle, chunk_size=8192, report_hook=None):
+        total_size = response.info().get('Content-Length').strip()
         total_size = int(total_size)
         bytes_so_far = 0
 
-        while 1:
+        while True:
             chunk = response.read(chunk_size)
             bytes_so_far += len(chunk)
 
             if not chunk:
                 break
 
-            file.write(chunk)
+            filehandle.write(chunk)
             if report_hook:
                 report_hook(bytes_so_far, chunk_size, total_size)