King was born on July 3, 1989 in Los Angeles, California, to then-Saturday Night Live cast member Rob Schneider and London King, a former model. Her parents divorced and her mother remarried. She grew up living in southern Ohio, between Wellston and Columbus. When she was nine, her stepfather, Justin Tesa, gave her a record by all-female hard-rock band the Donnas; she views this as the pivotal moment when she decided she wanted to be a musician. Around this time, she also started listening to the Runaways and Blondie, and she made her acting debut alongside her father in the movie Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.

In 1999, she debuted as an actress in her father’s film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. In 2005, at age 16, she started gigging around New York City, using a fake ID to gain entry to the local nightclubs. King immersed herself in the local songwriting scene and honed her performance skills by busking around town. King was then signed by newly appointed RCA Chairman Peter Edge. Her debut single “Good To Be A Man”, was released on March 13, 2012, as a digital download and also as a 7″ vinyl single. On June 12, 2012, the four-song The Elle King EP was released on RCA. The EP was recorded in New York and was produced by Andy Baldwin and Chris DeStefano, with King herself producing a track. The EP’s lead track, “Playing for Keeps”, was chosen as the theme song for VH1’s Mob Wives Chicago series that premiered on June 10, 2012, on VH1.

In September 2014, King released “Ex’s & Oh’s”, which serves as the lead single off her debut album. She released the album, Love Stuff on February 17, 2015. She performed “Ex’s & Oh’s” the next day on The Today Show to promote it. The song has reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming King’s first top 10 single in the United States. “Ex’s & Oh’s” received two nominations at the 58th Grammy Awards: Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song. In July 2015, King supported Modest Mouse on their UK tour. Afterwards, “Under the Influence” and “America’s Sweetheart” were released as singles for rock radio and mainstream radio, respectively. In 2016, her single “Good Girls” featured on the Ghostbusters soundtrack and played over the movie’s credits. In 2016, she teamed up with country singer Dierks Bentley for the song “Different for Girls”. They performed this song at the 50th CMA Awards on November 2, 2016 where she and Bentley won the award for Musical Event of the Year.

King started dating Andrew Ferguson in January 2016. The couple met in a hotel lobby in London and got engaged twelve days later on a sailing trip around the San Francisco Bay. They married on February 14, 2016 and confirmed their intent to divorce on May 15, 2017. On April 23, 2017, Ferguson was arrested and charged with felony domestic violence after allegedly grabbing King by the throat and threatening to kill her, though this charge was later dropped. King and Ferguson briefly reconciled in late 2017. As of October 2018, King is in a new relationship.

On March 6, 2017, she premiered a new single “Wild Love” featuring a sparse electronic production, marking a slight departure from her previous style in music.

King released her second studio album, Shake the Spirit, on October 19, 2018, which she made with her band the Brethren.

On August 3, 2019, she was featured singing on a version of Lindsey Stirling’s “The Upside”.

Throughout 2019, King served as a guest co-host on the MTV series Catfish: The TV Show opposite lead host Nev Schulman.