Tilman Valentin Schweiger was born December 12, 1963 in Freiburg. He began to study medicine in Cologne, but quit soon. After studying German and working as a waiter and discjockey he decided to become an actor. Three years of actor's training at the school of the theatre "Der Keller" in Cologne followed, then he first played in Bonn at "Contra-Kreis-Theater".

From 1991 on Schweiger played Jo Zenker in the TV-Series "Lindenstraße" – a role which made him popular despite its sporadic appearances. Then Schweiger was discovered by Bernd Eichinger who casted him for his action comedy "Manta, Manta", followed by his second role in a feature film: as amateur boxer Rudy in "Ebbies Bluff" (1993) he was awarded Max Ophüls Price for best young actor. From 1994 on he played the assistant to Hannelore Elsner in the TV crime series "Die Kommissarin".

The huge success of Sönke Wortmann's comedy "Der bewegte Mann" ("Maybe, maybe not", 1994) after the cartoon by Ralf König, in which Schweiger played the heterosexual Axel in homoerotic turbulences made him a real star and also a sex symbol. In the following years he played in Lars Becker's "Bunte Hunde" ("The Break", 1995) and Detlev Buck's "Männerpension" ("Jailbirds", 1996). In spring 1996 he founded the production company "Mr. Brown Entertainment" together with Thomas Zickler and André Hennicke. Their first feature film was the crime comedy "Knockin' on Heaven"s Door" (1997) by newcomer director Thomas Jahn which turned out to be an enormous success.

In the following years Schweiger was also seen in international productions like "Bastard" with John Hurt and in a small role as a killer in "The Replacement Killers" by Antoine Fuqua. His debut as a director followed in 1998 with the comedy "Der Eisbär" ("The Polar Bear", 1998) about two killers in trouble – one of them played by Schweiger.

Besides his roles in German films as different as "Der große Bagarozy" ("The Great Bagarozy", 1999), "Bang Boom Bang" (1999), "Agnes und seine Brüder" ("Agnes and his Brothers", 2004), "Wo ist Fred" ("Where is Fred?", 2006) and "Far Cry" (2008) Schweiger played more and more roles in American films like "Driven" (2001), "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" (2002) or "King Arthur" (2003). His next film as director was the romantic comedy "Barfuß" (2005). Again he played a main role alongside Johanna Wokalek.

With the romantic comedy "KeinOhrHasen" ("Rabbit Without Ears", 2007) that again saw him as director, producer, author, and leading actor, Schweiger celebrated a huge box office success in 2007: The film about a cynical gossip reporter who falls in love with a sensitive kindergarten teacher (Nora Tschirner), attracted more than six million viewers to the movie theatres.

In late 2008, the star-studded knight movie parody "1 ½ Ritter – Auf der Suche nach der hinreißenden Herzelinde" ("1 ½ Knights – In Search of the Ravishing Princess Herzelinde"), Schweiger's fourth film as a director, opened in German theatres. At the same time, Schweiger starred in Quentin Tarantino's war film "Inglorious Bastards" that opened in cinemas in 2009.

Again with himself and Nora Tschirner in the leading roles he directed the sequel to "Keinohrhasen" in 2009: "Zweiohrküken" ("Rabbit Without Ears 2"). In the same year he was part of the ensemble of "Männerherzen" ("Men in the City"), directed by Simon Verhoeven. His next work as director was the comedy "Kokowäh", once again with himself but also with his little daughter Emma Tiger in the leading roles.