Jan Bülow was born in Berlin in 1996. He had his first stage appearances at the youth theatre of the Deutsches Theater, where he played the title role in "Odyssey nach Homer" in 2011 and had a leading role in "2035 oder mit 40 eröffnet ein Hotel auf dem Mond" in 2013. He played his first screen role in 2013 in Barbara Ott's short film "Sunny". In the following years he was seen in supporting roles in several feature films and television productions. For example, as a friend of one of the two protagonists in the much acclaimed social drama "Wanja" (2015), in Stefan Schaller's youth and coming-out story "Aus der Haut" (2015, TV) and in Matthias Schweighöfer's successful comedy "Der Nanny" ("The Manny", 2015). In 2015 Bülow began studying acting at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin.

He played his first leading role in the novel adaptation "Radio Heimat" (2016), about a group of four young friends who have to struggle with the adversities of the Ruhr area of the 1980s, as well as all kinds of pubertal turmoil.

Under the direction of Christian Alvart he played supporting roles in the psychological thriller "Abgeschnitten" ("Cut Off", 2018) and in the Netflix series "Dogs of Berlin" (2018). For the 2018/2019 season, he became a permanent ensemble member at the Schauspielhaus Zurich before officially completing his acting training in 2019. His first appearance in Zurich was the title role in "Hamlet", directed by artistic director Barbara Frey, followed by Dürrenmatt's "Justiz" (2019, directed by Frank Castorf) and Herbert Fritsch's "Totart Tatort" (2019).

With the 2019/2020 season he moved to Vienna and became a permanent ensemble member at the renowned Burgtheater.

In early 2020 Bülow appeared on screen again in the title role of "Lindenberg! Mach dein Ding ("Lindenberg! Do your thing"), a biopic of the legendary rock musician Udo Lindenberg. For this performance, he received the Bavarian Film Award for Best Young Actor in January 2020 and he was nominated for the German Film Award in the category of Best Leading Actor.

He then took on roles in two "Tatort" crime dramas: in the episode "Blind Date" (2021), Bülow had a leading role as a member of an affluent clique that robs gas stations out of boredom, in "Game Over" (2023), he played a police officer suspected of murder.

Despite these ventures, Bülow's main focus remained on the stage, appearing at the Burgtheater in productions like "Richard II" (2021), "Tales from the Vienna Woods" (2022) and "Demons" (2022).

He took on another leading role in a feature film in 2023 as a young physicist in the artistic mystery thriller "Die Theorie von Allem" ("The Theory of Everything", DE/AT/CH), directed by Timm Kröger, in whose previous film "Zerrumpelt Herz" ("The Council of Birds") Bülow had already taken part.