Wang was born in Kowloon Tong, British Hong Kong on 28 March 1994, and grew up in Sha Tin District, New Territories. His father, Wang Ruiji, is a former member of China’s national fencing team and an Asian Games gold medalist. His mother, Sophia Chow, is a former acrobatics gymnast from Shanghai. His maternal grandfather, Zhou Yongchang, was a pioneer of ultrasound diagnostic medicine of mainland China. Under the guidance of his father and other professional coaches, Wang started his fencing training at the age of ten. He went on to win multiple awards as part of the Hong Kong national fencing team, including first place at the Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championship in 2011. He attended the American International School Hong Kong.

In 2010, while playing basketball at his school, Wang was noted by a representative of South Korean talent agency JYP Entertainment and invited to participate in the auditions in Kowloon, which he passed in December 2010, five or six months later. He was offered a scholarship to Stanford University for fencing, but turned it down after passing his audition. In July 2011, Wang moved to Seoul, South Korea for his K-pop training. He made an appearance on the reality survival program Win: Who Is Next two years later, which aired on Mnet on 6 September 2013. The program was a competition between YG Entertainment trainees (who later debuted as members of Winner and iKon), and JYP trainees. Wang appeared alongside fellow trainees Mark, Yugyeom, and BamBam, who were then selected as members of Got7.

After two and a half years of training, Wang was selected as one of the final members of JYP Entertainment’s new boy group Got7 and debuted with the single “Girls Girls Girls”, released on 16 January 2014, from the group’s first EP Got It?.

In 2014, Wang joined his first variety show, SBS’ Roommate, as a member in its second season. Wang’s individual popularity rose after he appeared on the series, and he was later awarded the Newcomer Award at the 2014 SBS Entertainment Awards. He subsequently appeared on several other Korean variety shows such as Star King, Law of the Jungle, Happy Together, Radio Star, Problematic Men, Our Neighborhood Arts and Physical Education, Saturday Night Live Korea, A Look At Myself, and others. On 12 May 2015, Wang was appointed as a new MC for SBS’ music show Inkigayo, following the departure of ZE:A’s Kwanghee.

In December 2015, Wang made his Chinese television debut as one of the presenters (alongside He Jiong) on the Chinese version of the show Please Take Care of My Refrigerator, called Go Fridge, which was well received. He also wrote the lyrics, composed and arranged the theme song for the show in seasons 2 and 3. In March 2016, Wang was appointed as MC for Fresh Sunday, a show on Hunan TV. Later in 2016, he starred in the show Fighting Man alongside Jam Hsiao, Wang Kai, Jing Boran, Bai Jingting, and Yang Shuo.

On 29 April 2016, Got7 held their first concert in Seoul, where Wang performed his self-composed songs “I Love It” and “WOLO (We Only Live Once)” with his group members Yugyeom and BamBam. In November 2017, prior to the release of Got7 second Japanese extended play “Turn Up”, Wang dropped out of all group activities in Japan due to health concerns and conflicting schedules.

In December 2016 Wang’s first solo commercial for Midea was released in China.

On 26 June 2017, JYP Entertainment announced the release of Wang’s first solo album in China, as well as the establishment of a dedicated management team, named Team Wang, for his activities in the country. Wang also established Snake or the Rabbit, which is a distribution company based in the United States. His first single, an English track titled “Papillon”, was released on 26 August and debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s China V Chart on the week of 16 September; moreover, on 30 August, he released “Novoland: The Castle in the Sky” (Chinese: 九州天空城), the theme song for iOS game Novoland: The Castle in the Sky 3D, breaking away from hip-hop and making a first try with melodious and classical music. After establishing his own studio in China, Wang began endorsing beverages, clothing brands and electronics, which include Pepsi, Snow Beer, VIVO X21, Adidas, Douyin Application, Lenovo in China, and Hogan in Hong Kong.

On 9 February 2018, Wang was appointed as envoy of Hong Kong Tourism. On 20 April, he released his third self-written single, “Dawn of Us”, an English song once again composed and arranged in collaboration with Boytoy. While “Papillon” dealt with the theme of self-struggle and “Okay” described self-love, the track exhorts to appreciate the present and live with enthusiasm. The duo paired up again for “Fendiman”, a collaboration with Fendi China. “Papillon” was included in B2 Music and Vibe Asian hip hop and rap compilation album Urban Asia Vol. 1, which was released worldwide on 9 May. Wang also featured in one of the four exclusive tracks, “Can’t Breathe” by Eddie Supa, together with Stan Sono. On 14 May, his solo track “X” for Snow Beer superX was released.

On 22 October 2018, Wang signed with Canxing Culture to enter the international market. On 6 November 2018, Wang released a single, “Different Game”, featuring Gucci Mane. On 18 December, Madame Tussauds Hong Kong announced the creation of Wang’s wax figure, which was unveiled on 30 July. On 14 January 2019, he was appointed as the new ambassador of Fendi China. On 23 March 2019, Wang held a birthday party titled “328 Journey Festival” at the Beijing Olympics Sports Center. The 5,000 tickets were sold out in 98 seconds.

On 12 June 2019, Wang was featured on the song “Rumble” from the album Diaspora by GoldLink. Then he collaborated with Qin Fen, and released the single “Another” on 19 June 2019. On 20 July, Fendi launched its first ever velvet collection called “Fendi X Jackson Wang Capsule Collection”. The limited edition collection, for which Jackson designed clothes, shoes and accessories, sold out immediately after the launch. It was then released worldwide on 26 July.

On 12 September 2019, Wang held a listening session of his first album Mirrors for the press: the digital record, which expresses the emotions of the contemporary youth and incorporates elements of China’s traditional culture, was produced in China, South Korea, and the United States. Wang supervised the whole process, from the initial creation to the packaging, and was personally involved in arrangements, lyrics writing, and music video shooting. The album’s first single, “Bullet to the Heart”, was released on 24 September with a music video directed by Daniel Cloud Campos, and tells the obstacles and hardships experienced in pursuing something. The album’s second single was “Dway!”, published on 22 October with its music video. In conjunction with the release of Mirrors on 25 October, the singer and artist Da Yan created an interactive video installation space titled Bullet to the Heart: 0328 at the LOVE LOVE LOVE Art of Love Exhibition at Shum Yip Upperhills Tower 1 in Shenzhen from 24 October to 3 November.

On 11 October 2019, leading up to the release of Mirrors, Wang was featured in three tracks from 88rising’s album Head in the Clouds II: “Tequila Sunrise”, “Walking”, and “I Love You 3000 II”. On 12 December 2019, he was featured on the song “Face Power” from the album Mr. Enjoy Da Money, a solo album by Higher Brothers’ KnowKnow.

In August 2019, during the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, Wang uploaded a photo of the Chinese flag and declared himself as “one of 1.4 billion guardians of the Chinese flag” on his official Weibo account. In a January 2020 interview with Forbes, Wang introduced himself as “Jackson Wang from China” and stated: “My goal is just to put my name out on the table just to let everybody to get to know me. I want to … let people know that Chinese kids are working on good music too.”

On 20 March 2020, Wang released a new self-written single, “100 Ways”, mixing western and Chinese culture. The single became the first song by a Chinese and K-pop solo artist to debut on Mediabase’s U.S. Top 40 radio chart. It entered the chart in May, ranking 39th, and maintained its spot with a steady rise, ranking #24 on July 19.

In 2020, he ranked 41st on Forbes China Celebrity 100 list. He is the fastest Chinese artist to reach 10 million views on Vevo.