Born in Eastney, Woodburn left home and moved to Liverpool at the age of 18. Woodburn says that she was constantly beaten by her mother throughout her childhood and neglected by her father, who she said later attempted to molest her as a teenager. Woodburn has a sister and a brother, and several half-siblings born to her mother and various men. Her mother died in 2000.

In 2002, Woodburn was hired as a co-presenter of new show How Clean Is Your House? with Aggie MacKenzie, which began airing in May 2003. From August to September 2009, the sixth and final series of How Clean is Your House? was aired. From 2007 to 2009, Woodburn filmed a version of How Clean is Your House in Canada, called Kim’s Rude Awakenings. In August 2009, Woodburn announced to Now magazine that she would not be making any further series of How Clean Is Your House? and Channel 4 announced soon afterwards that the series had been cancelled.

In 2006, Woodburn wrote an autobiography, Unbeaten, which detailed her early life. She used this book to reveal that in February 1966, when she was 23 years old, she gave birth to a baby, three months prematurely, who was a stillborn. This revelation led to a police investigation, which she readily assisted with.

In November 2009, Woodburn was announced as a contestant for the ninth series of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!. She finished as runner-up to Gino D’Acampo.

In March 2010, she appeared on Celebrity Come Dine with Me on Channel 4 alongside Claire Sweeney, Darren Day and Tom O’Connor.

In 2011, Woodburn became a regular panellist on the Big Brother spin-off series, Big Brother’s Bit on the Side. In November 2011, she entered the house to set a shopping task which she also judged, while berating the housemates for their hygiene.

In February 2013, Woodburn teamed up with chef, Rosemary Shrager, and the pair appeared on the fifth series of Let’s Dance for Comic Relief as contestants. They danced to “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” by Marilyn Monroe. They were eliminated by the panel of judges.

In 2014, Woodburn appeared as a contestant on an episode of The Chase Celebrity Specials.

In March 2016, Woodburn took part in the second series of Famous, Rich and Homeless for BBC One. Her controversial comments on the lives of rough sleepers and some of them that she met led to a dispute between her, the public and the other volunteers on the show.

In April 2016, Woodburn and her husband, Pete, appeared on Channel 4’s A Place in the Sun: Winter Sun in order to find a holiday home in Costa del Sol, which was to be their home during the winter months. Their budget was £320,000 and they were shown five two-three bedroom penthouses.

On 13 January 2017, Woodburn entered the Celebrity Big Brother house to participate as a housemate in its nineteenth series, entering on Day 11. After entering the house, she clashed with fellow new housemates Jessica Cunningham and Chloe Ferry after Ferry accidentally splashed her with water. She had arguments with James Jordan who mocked her for being a cleaner, as well as multiple arguments with Nicola McLean. On Day 15, Jamie O’Hara intervened in an argument between Woodburn and McLean after Kim called him a “chicken-livered bugger”, Woodburn and O’Hara argued themselves and Kim told Jamie “you’re an adulterer that two-timed his wife and has got three kids”, this referring to Jamie cheating which was widely reported in the media. This resulted in security entering the house and Woodburn was ordered to sleep in a separate room for the night. Woodburn was immune from nominations during her first week in the house but was eventually nominated to face every eviction by her housemates. In the final, Woodburn was evicted and finished in third place with 14.52% of the final vote. Despite this, she left to a chorus of boos from the crowd, some of her former housemates could be seen jeering her on a screen behind her.

On 6 February 2017, Woodburn appeared on This Morning where she was chastised by presenter Philip Schofield over her behaviour in the house. Woodburn scolded him for not being impartial; she also criticized ex-housemate Coleen Nolan (a friend of Schofield’s) and disagreed with her winning the series.

Woodburn appeared on ITV’s Loose Women in August 2018. She was asked if she would make amends with Coleen Nolan, but left after arguing with the other panellists.

In May 2019, Woodburn appeared on Tenable All Stars alongside Christopher Biggins, Joe Pasquale, Martin Roberts and Tony Blackburn.

Throughout 2019 and early 2020, she toured theatres all over the UK with her chat-show style stage show, An Audience with Kim Woodburn, where she was interviewed to speak about her life and career and also took questions from the audience.