Shevchenko was born in Dvirkivshchyna, Ukrainian SSR. He was born in the family of Praporshchik Mykola Hryhorovych Shevchenko. In 1979, his family moved to the newly built neighbourhood in Kyiv – Obolon (Minsk District was created in 1975). In Kyiv, Shevchenko went to the 216th City School and in 1986 (aged 9) enrolled into the football section coached by Oleksandr Shpakov. Because of the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, together with his sport group he was evacuated temporarily from the city. At an early age, he also was a competitive boxer in the LLWI Ukrainian junior league, but eventually he elected to move on to football.

In 1986, Shevchenko failed a dribbling test for entrance to a specialist sports school in Kyiv, but happened to catch the eye of a Dynamo Kyiv scout while playing in a youth tournament, and was thus brought to the club. Four years later, Shevchenko was on the Dynamo under-14 team for the Ian Rush Cup (now the Welsh Super Cup); he finished as the tournament’s top scorer and was awarded a pair of Rush’s boots as a prize by the then-Liverpool player.

Shevchenko started out his professional career at age 16 when he came on for only 12 minutes as a substitute in a 0–2 home loss to the Odessa second team Chornomorets-2 Odessa on 5 May 1993. He was a substitute for the last six home games of the 1992–93 Ukrainian First League and did not score any goals. The next 1993–94 season at the second tier, Shevchenko was the top goal scorer for Dynamo-2 with 12 goals, and he made his first appearance in the starting XI. Shevchenko scored his first goal against Krystal Chortkiv at the home 1–1 draw on 7 October 1993. During the same season, he recorded his first hat-trick in a home game against Artania Ochakiv on 21 November 1993 which Dynamo-2 won 4–1. Shevchenko stayed with Dynamo-2 until the end of 1994 and once again he was called up for one game in late 1996.

He made his Vyshcha Liha debut for Dynamo squad on 8 November 1994 in an away game against Shakhtar Donetsk when he was 18. It was actually his second game for the senior squad overall after he played a home game of National Cup competition on 5 November 1994 against Skala Stryi. That year Shevchenko became a national champion and became a cup holder with Dynamo. He won his second league title the next season, scoring 6 goals in 20 matches, and scored a hat-trick in the first half of a 1997–98 UEFA Champions League road match against Barcelona, which Dynamo won 4–0. His 19 goals in 23 league matches and six goals in ten Champions League matches (including a hat-trick over two legs against Real Madrid) were followed by 28 total goals in all competitions in 1998–99. He won the domestic league title with Dynamo in each of his five seasons with the club.

Shevchenko achieved 111 caps and scored 48 goals for the Ukrainian national team, whom he represented at the 2006 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2012. He earned his first cap in 1995 and scored his first international goal in May 1996 in a friendly against Turkey.

In 1999, Shevchenko joined Italian club A.C. Milan for a then-record transfer fee of $25 million. He made his league debut on 28 August 1999 in a 2–2 draw with Lecce. Alongside five other players – Michel Platini, John Charles, Gunnar Nordahl, István Nyers, and Ferenc Hirzer – he managed, as a foreign player, to win the Serie A scoring title in his debut season, finishing with 24 goals in 32 matches. Shevchenko maintained his excellent form into the 2000–01 season, scoring 24 goals in 34 matches, including nine goals in 14 Champions League games. During the same season, he also reunited with Kakha Kaladze as teammates when Milan signed the Georgian defender from Dynamo Kyiv in January 2001.

In March 2000, Dynamo manager Valeri Lobanovsky became Ukraine’s coach, with the aim to qualify for the 2002 World Cup finals. Shevchenko scored ten goals in the qualifiers, but Ukraine again failed to qualify after losing a play-off, this time against Germany. He then scored a total of three goals in Ukraine’s Euro 2004 qualifying round, but the team failed to qualify for the play-offs, finishing below Greece and Spain in third place in Group 6.

Despite netting only five times in 24 matches, mainly due to injuries, Shevchenko became the first Ukrainian-born player to win the Champions League after Milan lifted their sixth trophy in 2002–03. He scored the crucial away goal against rivals Inter Milan in the semi-final, and then scored the winning penalty in the shoot out against Juventus in the final, which had ended goalless after extra time. Following Milan winning the Champions League, Shevchenko flew to Kyiv to put his medal by the grave of Valeriy Lobanovskyi (who he was managed by when he was at Dynamo), who died in 2002. He finished top goalscorer in Serie A in 2003–04 for the second time in his career, scoring 24 goals in 32 matches as Milan won the Scudetto for the first time in five years. He also scored the winning goal in the UEFA Super Cup victory over Porto, leading to Milan’s second trophy of the season. In August 2004, he scored three goals against Lazio as Milan won the Supercoppa Italiana. Shevchenko capped off the year by being awarded the 2004 Ballon d’Or, becoming the third Ukrainian player ever to win the award after Oleg Blokhin and Igor Belanov. In the same year, Shevchenko was also inducted into the FIFA 100.

Shevchenko is married to American model Kristen Pazik. The couple met at a Giorgio Armani afterparty in 2002, and married on 14 July 2004 in a private ceremony on a golf course in Washington, D.C. They communicate with each other in Italian, though Shevchenko had previously made public his desire to learn English. After his return to Dynamo Kyiv in August 2009, the couple declared that they want their children to learn Ukrainian.

The couple have four sons: Jordan, born on 29 October 2004, Kristian, born on 10 November 2006, Alexander, born on 1 October 2012 and Rider Gabriel, born on 6 April 2014. Shevchenko commemorated Jordan’s birth by scoring against Sampdoria the following day (Milan won 1–0). Milan owner and former Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi is the godfather of Shevchenko’s first son, Jordan. The day after Kristian’s birth, Shevchenko scored in a 4–0 Chelsea victory over Watford and he and several of his teammates gathered and performed the popular “rock-the-baby” goal celebration as a tribute.

He scored 17 goals in the 2004–05 season after missing several games with a fractured cheekbone. Shevchenko made Champions League history the following season; on 23 November 2005, he scored all four goals in Milan’s 4–0 group stage drubbing of Fenerbahçe, becoming only the fifth player to accomplish this feat; his company includes Marco van Basten, Simone Inzaghi, Dado Pršo and Ruud van Nistelrooy (while Lionel Messi joined that group in the 2009–10 season and Robert Lewandowski in 2012–13 and 2019–20), and the only one to have done it in an away game. Milan eventually lost the tournament when Shevchenko missed the crucial penalty in the final against Liverpool. In the 2005–06 Champions League, he scored his last Milan goal in the second leg of the quarter-final as they eliminated Lyon after a last-minute comeback in a 3–1 victory. In the semi-final, Milan lost to eventual winners Barcelona 1–0, a match where Shevchenko controversially had a last minute equaliser denied by the referee. Despite this, he still ended up being the top scorer of the whole competition with 9 goals in 12 games.

In June 2005, he became an ambassador for the SOS Children’s Villages charity. Shevchenko also has a foundation to support orphaned children.

On 8 February 2006, Shevchenko became Milan’s second highest all-time goalscorer, behind Gunnar Nordahl, after netting against Treviso. He finished the season as joint fourth-top scorer with 19 goals in 28 games. Shevchenko ended his seven-year stint with Milan with 175 goals in 296 games.

On 28 May 2006, Shevchenko left Milan for Chelsea for £30.8 million (€43.875million), topping Michael Essien’s transfer fee from the previous year and also breaking the record for a player signed by an English club. He received the number seven shirt, as Chelsea manager José Mourinho said that Shevchenko could continue wearing it.

Shevchenko made his debut for Chelsea on 13 August 2006 in the FA Community Shield, scoring his side’s goal in a 2–1 loss to Liverpool. On 23 August, he scored his first Premier League goal – and his 300th in top-flight and international football – in a 2–1 loss to Middlesbrough. He scored goals sporadically throughout the season, including equalisers against Porto and Valencia in the 2006–07 Champions League and another against London rival club Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup to help take his side into the semi-final. He finished with a total of 14 from 51 games. During the campaign, he netted his 57th career goal in European competitions, leaving him second behind Gerd Müller on the all-time European goalscorers list, before Filippo Inzaghi made the record his own in the 2007–08 Champions League. Shevchenko’s 2006–07 season was cut short due to injury and a hernia operation. He missed the Champions League semi-final against Liverpool and the FA Cup final against Manchester United at the new Wembley Stadium on 19 May 2007. He did, however, start for Chelsea in the 2007 League Cup final victory over Arsenal in which he hit the bar which would have given Chelsea a 3–1 lead.

On 28 August 2009, Shevchenko signed a two-year deal at his former club Dynamo Kyiv and scored a penalty-goal in his first game upon returning to his former club against Metalurh Donetsk in Dynamo’s 3–1 victory on 31 August 2009. He was mostly used as a left winger, and was named left winger in the 2009 team of the season. On 16 September 2009, Shevchenko played his first Champions League match after returning to Dynamo, against Rubin Kazan, in Dynamo’s first game of the 2009–10 season. In October 2009, he was named the best player of the Ukrainian Premier League. On 4 November 2009, he scored a goal in the game against Inter, cross-city rivals of his former club Milan, in the fourth game of the Champions League season. It was the 15th goal he had scored against Inter in his career.

On 25 August 2010, he scored a penalty against Ajax in the second game against two teams in qualifications level for 2010–11 Champions League.

After only playing two games for Milan in the 2008–09 season, Shevcehnko was still the first choice for Ukraine, and he scored an equaliser in an 2010 World Cup qualifying match against England at Wembley Stadium. Ukraine, however, went on to lose the game 2–1 after his former Chelsea teammate John Terry scored from a free kick delivered by David Beckham.

On 28 July 2012, Shevchenko announced that he was quitting football for politics.

In May 2012, Shevchenko was named in the Ukrainian squad for Euro 2012. In Ukraine’s opening game, Shevchenko scored two headers to beat Sweden 2–1 in Group D. In Ukraine’s final game, against England, Marko Dević scored a “ghost goal” in the second half, with Ukraine losing 1–0 to a Wayne Rooney goal. Dević’s shot was hooked clear from behind the England goal-line by Shevchenko’s former Chelsea teammate John Terry under the eyes of the additional assistant referee standing beside the goal (as confirmed by video replays). The incident reopened football’s goal-line technology debate. Replays, however, also showed Artem Milevskiy should have been ruled offside before Dević’s shot. After this game, Shevchenko announced he would retire from international football, having been Ukraine’s youngest and oldest goalscorer and record marksman with 48 goals in 111 appearances.

In November 2012, Shevchenko refused to accept Football Federation of Ukraine’s proposal to become head coach of the Ukraine national team.

After his retirement in June 2012, Shevchenko immediately joined Ukraine – Forward! (formerly known as Ukrainian Social Democratic Party) and took second place on the party list for the October 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election. This was in spite of him stating a month earlier that he wanted to coach after his playing career: “This is the world I understand, the world I want to stay in.” In the election his party won 1.58% of the national votes and no constituencies and thus failed to win parliamentary representation.

Shevchenko, an avid golfer, participated in his first professional golf tournament, the Kharkov Superior Cup, in September 2013.

Shevchenko represented the Rest of the World team against England for Soccer Aid on 8 June 2014.

From 16 February 2016 to 15 July 2016, Shevchenko served as the assistant manager of the Ukraine national team. On 15 July 2016, Shevchenko was appointed as manager of the Ukraine national team. The 39-year-old replaced Mykhaylo Fomenko, whose four-year spell ended with elimination at the group stage of Euro 2016. He signed a two-year contract with the possibility of another two-year extension. Former Italy and Milan defender Mauro Tassotti, who was assistant coach when Shevchenko was at Milan, joined his coaching staff, as did former Dynamo coach Raúl Riancho, and former Milan Youth System coach Andrea Maldera. On 14 October 2019, Shevchenko led Ukraine to qualify for Euro 2020 with a 2–1 home win over reigning European champions Portugal.