Khan was born in Lahore on 29 November 1981 into a family of Pathan ancestry. He lives in Lahore, and speaks Punjabi as his first language. His father was born in Patiala, British India (now Punjab, India), and moved to Pakistan at a young age after the 1947 partition. His mother’s family originated in Lucknow, British India (now Uttar Pradesh). When Khan was young, his father was in pharmaceutical sales, which required the family to live in Athens, Dubai, Riyadh and Manchester during the Gulf War. His family returned to Lahore when he was 13. Since childhood, Khan has been a fan of Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor. He has two sisters; his older sister, Aliya, is an architect and his younger sister, Sana, is a physician.

Khan’s first television role was a bumbling spy named Bond with his bandmate, Ahmad Ali Butt, in the 2001 sitcom Jutt and Bond. His debut film was Shoaib Mansoor’s sociodrama Khuda Kay Liye, where he played a musician who is brainwashed by the local maulvi. Although the film received positive reviews, critical response to Khan’s performance was mixed. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama called it “strictly OK”, but The Economic Times’ film critic Gaurav Malani found him “engaged” in the role of an extremist. Released in 2007, the film grossed ₨ 250 million and is one of Pakistan’s highest-grossing films. Khan received the Lux Style Award for Best Actor – Film in 2008, and appeared in the TV series Dil Deke Jaenge. Later that year, in Anjum Shahzad’s travel adventure TV series Satrangi, he played an engineer who goes on a road trip. In 2010, Khan played a conservative, middle-class boy in the telefilm Aaj Kuch Na Kaho. Although it received negative reviews, Dawn found Khan “superbly convincing” and called him the film’s “only redeeming factor”. That year, he starred with Sanam Baloch in Haissam Hussain’s period TV series Dastaan. Based on Razia Butt’s novel, Bano, its story (set in the 1940s) revolves around the separation of a young couple during the 1947 partition. A Dawn reviewer wrote that Khan and his costars gave “superlative performances to match Samira Fazal’s wonderful script”, and The Express Tribune praised the lead pair’s onscreen chemistry. For his performance, Khan won the Best Drama Actor award at the Pakistan Media Awards.

Two rock bands, Ahmed Ali Butt’s Entity and Khan’s Paradigm, were active in Lahore between 1994 and 2000. The bands collaborated on the title track of a television sitcom, Jutt and Bond (featuring Khan and Ahmed Ali Butt), in the early 2000s. This collaboration led to the bands’ merger into Entity Paradigm. The new band appeared in the 2002 finale of Pepsi Battle of the Bands, losing to the band Aaroh. Entity Paradigm’s debut album, Irtiqa, was released in October 2003; it received broad critical appreciation, particularly the popular romantic track “Rahguzar”. The band broke up in 2007, reuniting in 2010 to participate in the third season of Coke Studio (where they covered Sajjad Ali’s “Bolo Bolo”). Their single, “Shor Macha”, was released that year. Dawn listed it among the year’s most popular Pakistani songs in the newspaper’s online poll. Khan was featured in its video (directed by Bilal Lashari), and said that he had played almost 250 shows as a musician. He left the band in 2012 to focus on his acting career.

Khan married Sadaf Khan in 2005 after a seven-year courtship. They have a son, Aayaan, and a daughter, Elayna. Khan and his wife founded Silk by Fawad Khan, a clothing line, whose debut collection was launched in August 2012 in Lahore.

He is the Italian brand Giovanni’s brand ambassador in Pakistan. Khan is also the Pakistani brand ambassador for the Suzuki Vitara, Pepsi, Oye Hoye, Tapal Tea, Zameen.com, Servis Shoes, Samsung, Telenor, Jazz, Warid, LUX, Tarang, Aquafina, Clear, Olper’s, Lays, Bold, Nestle, QMobile and TUC biscuits. He has been an ambassador for the Pakistan Super League’s Islamabad United cricket team since January 2016. Khan modeled for fashion designer Munib Nawaz in 2010, Umar Sayeed in 2012, and for the Republic by Omar Farooq in 2015.

Haissam Hussain’s comedy Akbari Asghari, a modern adaptation of Mirat-ul-Uroos, was Khan’s first television series in 2011; he played Asghar, an unambitious villager who wants to marry one of his cousins. In an interview with The Hindu’s Anuj Kumar, Khan described his character as “completely oaf[ish]”. In Kuch Pyar Ka Pagalpan, his third collaboration with Hussain, he starred with Sanam Baloch, Meekal Zulfiqar and Ayesha Khan as a computer engineer who wants to take over his uncle’s business. Khan later starred with Mahira Khan in Sarmad Khoosat’s TV serial drama, Humsafar, for which he won the Best Actor award at the 2012 Lux Style Awards. Humsafar is Pakistan’s highest-rated television serial. The series and Khan’s performance were praised. Ranika Rajani praised Humsafar in The Indian Express, calling it a “breath of fresh air” and preferring it to Indian soap operas. According to Rajani, the lead pair’s chemistry was the biggest factor in the show’s success. Zee News critic Ritka Handoo enjoyed the protagonists’ performances, calling the Khans a “quite believable onscreen couple”.

Khan’s first 2012 role was Rohail, a Turkish resident who goes to Pakistan to marry his cousin but instead marries her sister, in Sarmad Khoosat’s Ashk. That year, he played a member of an affluent family (with Sanam Saeed) in Sultana Siddiqui’s family-drama TV series Zindagi Gulzar Hai. The serial, one of the most critically acclaimed Pakistani dramas, also received widespread praise in India. Dipti Sharma of The Indian Express enjoyed Khan’s skillful portrayal. The role earned him several awards, including the Hum Award for Best Actor Popular and the Lux Style Award for Best Actor – Satellite. Khan’s last TV serial was Ahson Talish’s sociodrama, Numm. Broadcast in 2013, Khan played a boy who secretly marries a girl in London and is forced to marry another girl when he returns to Pakistan. Behadd, director Asim Raza’s telefilm, featured Khan as a young divorcee who proposes to a widow who is the mother of a teenage girl. The Times of India noted that Khan’s character in Behadd was different from those in Humsafar and Zindagi Gulzar Hai, calling it “another benchmark”. His last telefilm was Anjum Shahzad’s romance Armaan (with Aamina Sheikh), where he played a young, flirtatious boy. He also co-wrote the telefilm’s screenplay, with Vasay Chaudhry.

Khan is described by South Asian media as one of its most attractive men, and he was named the Most Beautiful Man at the 2015 Vogue Beauty Awards. He was ranked third in the Times of India’s 50 Most Desirable Men poll in 2014 and 2015, and was fifth in 2016. In November 2014, Khan received the Fresh Face of the Year Award at the Hello! Hall of Fame Awards in India. The British magazine Eastern Eye ranked Khan seventh in 2014 and sixth from 2015 to 2018 third and sixth on its annual list of sexiest Asian men. For his style and fashion, he received the Crush of the Year Award at the Grazia Young Fashion Awards. TC Candler, an independent critics list, nominated Khan as one of the 100 Most Handsome Faces of 2017. He was nominated for the International Pakistan Prestige Award for Style Icon of the Year in September 2017 (which went to Hamza Ali Abbasi).

Khan attended Islamic Relief USA fundraisers in San Jose and Washington, D.C., and raised money for the Shukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Bahrain. He has supported SOS Children’s Villages by participating in children’s carnivals in 2014 and 2017. In March 2015, Khan toured the United States and Canada and raised money for Pakistani charities; he has also raised money in London for charitable organisations in Pakistan. He and his wife participated in a musical tour of the United States to raise money for charitable organisations throughout Pakistan. In November 2015, they officiated at the launch of a tree-planting event organised by the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Peshawar. Khan appeared in Ali Zafar’s music video, “Urainge”, which was made as a tribute to the victims of the 2014 Peshawar school attack.

Khan made a cameo appearance in Asim Raza’s coming-of-age film, Ho Mann Jahaan, in January 2016. He then had a supporting role in Shakun Batra’s family drama, Kapoor & Sons. The film, which featured Khan as part of an ensemble cast including Rishi Kapoor, Ratna Pathak Shah, Rajat Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, and Alia Bhatt, was a commercial success. The actor received near-unanimous critical praise for his portrayal of Rahul Kapoor, a closeted homosexual writer. A Bollywood Hungama reviewer enjoyed Khan’s performance, saying that his character creates an emotional connection with the audience, and NDTV film critic Saibal Chaterjee praised his self-assured performance. Kapoor & Sons earned Khan the Diversity Award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne and a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 62nd Filmfare Awards. According to the film’s producer, Karan Johar, “We went to six actors and after six rejections, I told Shakun Batra (director) that we should drop the idea and he started developing another screenplay. Later, in a flash of thought Fawad came to my mind. I sent him the script, he loved it and said he would do it.” In September 2016, Johar said that Khan’s wife pressured him to accept the role.

Later in 2016, Khan appeared in a small role with Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Karan Johar’s romantic drama, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Raja Sen of Rediff.com found his role “far too little to justify the ridiculous kerfuffle his casting had caused”, but called him the perfect choice for the part. In Deccan Chronicle Subhash K. Jha described Khan’s role as “meagre and sketchy”. After the 2016 Uri attack, relations between India and Pakistan deteriorated; the Indian Motion Picture Producers Association (IMPPA) and the Film Producers Guild of India banned Pakistani artists from working in India until the situation normalised.

Khan is one of the highest-paid actors in the Pakistani film industry. According to director and producer Abdullah Kadwani, “Fawad is the closest actor to Waheed Murad.” Soon after the release of Khoobsurat, The Indian Express’s Mimansa Shekhar wrote that the actor redefined the Bollywood actor with charm, replacing “stereotype body builders with six packs”. After the success of Kapoor & Sons, Nirmalya Dutta of Daily News and Analysis called Khan’s portrayal of a gay male “a big leap forward for India’s LGBT movement”; in India, where homosexuality was illegal at that time, “Khan had the guts and gumption to play this seminal role.” In August 2016, Ranbir Kapoor said that Khan opened a door by playing a gay man and he was now comfortable playing such a role.

The Herald named Khan one of its 10 People of 2016. He was ranked the fifth-most-popular Bollywood actor of November 2014, and was called the most popular Bollywood actor in March 2016 by Times Celebex. MenXP ranked Khan 37th on its Most Popular Bollywood celebrities of 2014 list. He was the first Pakistani to appear on the cover of Filmfare magazine, in September 2014, and again appeared on its cover in October 2015 and March 2016. Hi! Blizt magazine featured Khan on its cover in 2016. He received the Best Male Debut Award at the IBNlive Movie Awards, with 48.54 percent of the vote.

Khan appeared as a judge on Pepsi Battle of the Bands in July 2017, with Atif Aslam and Meesha Shafi. He sang the show’s introductory song, and appeared in its video (released on 23 July) with Aslam and Shafi. According to Vafa Batool of Pakistan Today, Khan “preferred to acknowledge the raw live energy on stage.” Khan and the other members of Entity Paradigm reunited and performed “Hamesha” in the show’s finale.

Khan performed Hajj, the annual pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca, along with his family in 2018 and was therein invited to the Annual Hajj Lunch by King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.