Estevez initially attended school in the New York City public school system but transferred to a private academy once his father’s career took off. He lived on Manhattan’s Upper West Side until his family moved west in 1968 when his father was cast in Catch-22. Growing up in Malibu, California, Estevez attended Santa Monica High School.

When they returned to Los Angeles, Estevez co-wrote and starred in a high school play about Vietnam veterans called Echoes of an Era and invited his parents to watch it. Sheen recalls being astonished by his son’s performance, and “began to realize: my God, he’s one of us.” After graduating from Santa Monica High in 1980, he refused to go to college and instead went into acting. Unlike his brother Charlie, Estevez and his other siblings did not adopt their father’s stage name. Emilio reportedly liked the alliteration of the double ‘E’ initials, and “didn’t want to ride into the business as ‘Martin Sheen’s son’.” Upon his brother’s using his birth name Carlos Estevez for the film Machete Kills, Estevez mentioned that he was proud of his Spanish heritage and was glad that he never adopted a stage name, taking advice from his father who regretted adopting the name Martin Sheen as opposed to using his birth name, Ramón Estévez.

His first role was in a drama produced by the Catholic Paulist order. Soon after, he made his stage debut with his father in Mister Roberts at Burt Reynolds’ dinner theater in Jupiter, Florida (this was the only job his father ever placed him in). Later, father and son worked together in the 1982 ABC-TV film about juveniles in jail, In the Custody of Strangers, in which Estevez did the casting.

In the early 1980s, Estevez dated actress Mimi Rogers. He was involved off and on with Carey Salley, a Wilhelmina model. They have a son, Taylor Levi Estevez (born June 22, 1984) and a daughter, Paloma Rae Estevez (born February 15, 1986). Estevez and Salley did not issue a press release announcing either of their children’s births; the relationship overlapped with Estevez’s high-profile engagement to Demi Moore, who he was with intermittently from 1984 to 1986. In 1987, Salley filed a $2 million paternity suit against Estevez. Estevez acknowledged paternity of Salley’s children on June 1, 1987.

In 1992, he found the career longevity that escaped other Brat Packers by starring in The Mighty Ducks as Coach Gordon Bombay, a lawyer and former pee wee star and minor hockey prodigy looking to forget the past, forced into coaching a pee wee hockey team as a form of community service. The film turned out to be one of Disney’s most successful franchises. It was during shooting that Emilio Estevez coined the phrase “Plquack,” a compound word for ‘Plaid’ and ‘Quack’ much like the duck sound between takes, and, because the crew laughed so much it was worked into the film at 47 minutes in. It was followed by two sequels. The following year Estevez starred in three films: the dark thriller Judgment Night, the spoof comedy Loaded Weapon 1, and comedy/action film Another Stakeout, which was the sequel to his earlier film Stakeout.

On April 29, 1992, Estevez married singer-choreographer Paula Abdul. They divorced in May 1994, with Abdul later stating that she wanted children and Estevez, who already had two children, did not.

Estevez appeared in an uncredited role in the feature film Mission: Impossible. From 1998 to 1999, he appeared in three television films: the spaghetti Western Dollar for the Dead (1998), the comedy Late Last Night (1999), and Rated X (2000), which he directed. In 2000, Estevez starred in the Moxie! Award-winning thriller Sand as part of an ensemble cast that also included Denis Leary, Jon Lovitz, Harry Dean Stanton, and Julie Delpy.

Estevez is a close friend of Jon Bon Jovi. He appeared in Bon Jovi’s music video “Blaze of Glory” as Billy the Kid. In turn, Bon Jovi made a cameo appearance in Young Guns II. “Blaze of Glory” was in the Young Guns II soundtrack and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 2000, Estevez made an appearance in another Bon Jovi video, “Say It Isn’t So,” along with Matt LeBlanc, Claudia Schiffer, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In 2003, he made his voice acting debut when he helped create the English dubbed version of The 3 Wise Men with his father. Later, Estevez starred in The L.A. Riot Spectacular and voiced the English version of the film Arthur and the Invisibles. In 2008, he guest-starred on his brother’s sitcom Two and a Half Men as an old friend of Charlie Sheen’s character. (His father Martin Sheen had also guest-starred in 2005.)

In 2010 Estevez filmed a new project, The Way, in Spain where he directed his father in a story about a man who decides to make the Camino de Santiago after the death of his son in the French Pyrénées. It was released in the United States on October 7, 2011.

In 2017, his appearance in films was found to generate the highest return on investment (ROI) on average of all Hollywood actors.

In 2018, Estevez released another feature film, The Public, starring Alec Baldwin, Christian Slater, Jena Malone and Estevez himself. He wrote, directed and played in The Public that world premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

Estevez became a grandfather for the first time in 2019 when his son had his first child.