Oz was born in 1960 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Suna and Mustafa Öz, who had emigrated from Konya Province, Turkey. Mustafa, born in Bozkır, a small town in southern Turkey, earned scholarships that allowed him to emigrate to the United States as a medical resident in 1955. Suna (née Atabay), who comes from a wealthy Istanbul family, is the daughter of a pharmacist with Circassian (Shapsug) descent on her mother’s side. Oz has two sisters, Seval Öz and Nazlim Öz. Oz grew up in a mixed Muslim environment where his father’s family practiced more traditional Islam, while his mother’s family were more secular Muslims.

Oz was educated at Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1982, he received his undergraduate degree in biology at Harvard University. He played safety on Harvard’s football team and won an intramural college championship playing water polo. In 1986, he obtained MD and MBA degrees, respectively, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Penn’s Wharton School. He was awarded the Captain’s Athletic Award for leadership in college and was class president and then student body president during medical school.

In 1996, Ottavio Alfieri proposed to Oz that the mitral valve only needed one suture to close a leak. He developed the idea to use a catheter to put one staple in and submitted the patent for MitraClip in 1997. In the late 1990s, Oz began recommending ventricular assist devices as an alternative for patients with heart failure.

From 1999 to 2004, Oz was named a “Global Leader of Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum and was listed on Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” of 2008. He has been nominated for nine Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Talk Show Host since The Dr. Oz Show premiered in 2009, and won the award in 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2016.

Oz appeared as a health expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show for five seasons. In 2009, Winfrey offered to produce a syndicated series hosted by him through her company, Harpo Productions. The Dr. Oz Show debuted September 14, 2009, distributed by Sony Pictures Television.

In 2010, Oz joined Jeff Arnold as co-founder of Sharecare, Inc.

In August 2010, Oz was diagnosed with a pre-cancerous polyp in the colon during a routine colonoscopy which was performed as part of his show. Oz said that the procedure likely saved his life.

In January 2011, Oz premiered as part of a weekly show on OWN called “Oprah’s Allstars”. In each episode, he, Suze Orman, and Dr. Phil answer various questions about life, health and finance. He also currently does a health segment on 1010 WINS titled “Your Daily Dose”.

On October 23, 2014, Surgeon Oz, showing Oz’s career as a surgeon, debuted on OWN.

Eight of Oz’s books have been New York Times bestsellers, of which seven were co-authored by Michael F. Roizen. He has a regular column in Esquire magazine and O, The Oprah Magazine and his article “Retool, Reboot, and Rebuild” was awarded the 2009 National Magazine Award for Personal Service. Oz and the Hearst Corporation launched the bi-monthly magazine Dr. Oz THE GOOD LIFE on February 4, 2014.

A 2014 study published in the British Medical Journal found that medical talk shows such as The Dr Oz Show and The Doctors often lack adequate information on the specific benefits or evidence of their claims. 40 episodes of each program from early 2013 were evaluated, determining that evidence supported 46 percent, contradicted 15 percent and was not found for 39 percent of the recommendations on The Dr Oz Show.

In April 2015, a group of ten physicians from prestigious institutions called for Columbia University to part ways with Oz, who was the vice chair of the Department of Surgery. More than 1,300 doctors signed a letter sent to the university.

In September 2016, during his presidential campaign, Donald Trump appeared on The Dr. Oz Show. In the lead-up to the show’s taping, Oz promoted Trump’s appearance with a claim that Oz would assess medical records submitted to the show by Trump and reveal his assessment on the show. Several news outlets speculated that Trump’s appearance aimed to appeal to The Dr. Oz Show’s large female viewership. In 2018, Trump appointed Oz, athletes, and The Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno to his Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. Trump’s selections were criticized as choosing “pundits over experts” for the panel.

In 2019, Oz played for the “Home” roster during the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game at the Bojangles’ Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. The roster was made up of celebrities with Carolina roots. He previously played in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. Also in 2019, Oz played for Team Cleveland in Major League Baseball’s All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of media publications reported that Oz’s discussion of the coronavirus on television was influencing Trump’s decision-making after appearing on The Dr. Oz Show and promoting Oz to an advisory role. Oz had promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, as a cure for COVID-19 on multiple Fox News broadcasts in March 2020. Trump claimed to be taking the drug in May 2020. In June 2020, the Food and Drug Administration revoked emergency use authorization of hydroxychloroquine, stating that it was “no longer reasonable to believe” that the drug was effective against COVID-19 or that its benefits outweighed “known and potential risks”.

In April 2020, Oz appeared on Fox News with Sean Hannity and stated that reopening schools in the United States might be worth the increased number of deaths it could potentially cause. He received major backlash on social media for the comments and later apologized claiming that he had seen the argument in an editorial on The Lancet.