Kapoor was born in Mumbai on 18 October 1977. His father, Avikishore Kapoor was in the construction business and his mother, Kanan is a singer and homemaker. His parents are originally from Amritsar, Punjab. He is the youngest of three children, with two sisters Geeta and Reshma. In February 2015, he married Naina Bachchan, niece of Amitabh Bachchan, in a private family ceremony in Seychelles.

In 2009, Kapoor started writing weekly columns for HT City, the lifestyle supplement of the Hindustan Times. These columns ended in November 2009 but still appear online on the social network Desimartini.

Yash Raj Films (YRF) studio subsequently signed Kapoor for a three-film contract. He appeared in films like Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (2007), Aaja Nachle (2007) and Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008). After this, Kapoor took a break for two years, and then appeared in national award winner Rahul Dholakia’s Lamhaa (2010) starring Sanjay Dutt. The film didn’t do well but Kapoor received accolades for his performance as a young Kashmiri politician. Critics hailed it as “One of the most powerful performances of the year”. That same year, Kapoor voiced the Indian God Rama in Mahayoddha Rama, an animation film made by Raizada Rohit Jaising Vaid. In 2011, he appeared in the Shahrukh Khan starrer Don 2, where his performance was appreciated.

In 2012, Kapoor played the lead role in Sameer Sharma’s light-hearted comedy film Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana which he co-wrote. The film received positive reviews and was hailed by critics as being amongst the ten best films of the year. The New York Times reviewed it favourably and called Kapoor the Indian Matthew McConaughey. In 2014, he appeared in the off-beat comedy film Kaun Kitne Paani Mein.

He is a trained pilot, and rally car driver. In 2014, he started training for the Formula Three. He co-founded Asia’s largest crowdfunding platform called Ketto, which raises money for social and individual causes. To date, the platform has raised close to 120 million dollars.

Kapoor’s next films to release were the epic action trilingual film, Veeram, directed by National Award winner Jayaraj, Gauri Shinde’s next and Tigmanshu Dhulia’s war drama Raagdesh based on the Indian National Army trials. In 2017, he starred in Gold based on the first Indian hockey team to win a Gold at the Olympics, the film saw him pairing up with Akshay Kumar for the first time. It was released on 15 August 2018.