Joachim Król was born in Herne on June 17, 1957. His father was a miner of Polish descent. After graduating from school, he studied theatre in Cologne, while also running a bar in Dortmund. In 1981, he moved to Munich, where he studied acting at the renowned Otto-Falckenberg-Schule till 1984. Afterwards, he played at theatres in Bochum, Basel, Hannover, München and Moers. Around the same time, Król also started out in film and television. He gave his screen debut playing a mute-deaf man in Joseph Rusnak's "Kaltes Fieber" (1984), and then appeared in Vivian Naefe's "Ticket nach Rom", Krzysztof Zanussi's "Wherever you are" (1987), and Doris Dörrie's "Happy Birthday, Türke!" (1991).

His breakthrough as a screen actor came in 1993, thanks to two utterly different roles: In Tom Tykwer's stark drama "Die tödliche Maria", Król played the sensitive neighbour Dieter who becomes the last resort for the titular hero; in Detlev Buck's comedy "Wir können auch anders", he excelled as the charming nincompoop Rudi, who takes his brother on an absurd journey through East Germany. Both films were well received by critics and audiences alike, and his portrayal of Rudi won Król the German Film Prize.

Offbeat, naïve and tragic-comical characters became his trademark: In the box office comedy "Der bewegte Mann" (1994), Król stole the picture as an awkwardly shy gay man, and the role garnered him his second German Film Prize as Best Actor.

Yet he managed to expand his repertoire on a regular basis: He played a sensitive novelist in Helmut Dietl's "Rossini oder die mörderische Frage, wer mit wem schlief" (1996), an eccentric police detective in Peter Lichtefeld's road movie "Zugvögel… Einmal nach Inari" (1997), and a withdrawn undercover cop in "Es geschah am helllichten Tag (1997). And his minimalist style, which greatly informs his comic performances, also works for his tragic roles in dramas like "Gloomy Sunday" (1999) and Tykwer's "Der Krieger und die Kaiserin" (2000).

After playing the role of Commissario Brunetti in four TV adaptations of Donna Leon's popular crime novels, Król surprised everyone with his portrayal of a lonely hit man in the "Lautlos" (2004). He continued to star in ambitious TV and film productions, including the satirical thriller "Silentium" (2004) and the adaptation of Günter Grass' novel "Unkenrufe" (2005). In the past years, Król also appeared in Paul Schrader's "Adam Resurrected" (2008), the biopic "Mein Leben (2009), and the period piece "Henri 4" (2010). Król, who is regarded as one of the most versatile actors in Germany, was also the titular hero of the TV crime series "Lutter".

From 2011 until 2014, Król played the role of police detective Frank Steier in the Frankfurt episodes of the "Tatort" series alongside Nina Kunzendorf. In addition to this, he guest-starred in shows like "Der Kriminalist" and "Nachtschicht". On the big screen, he appeared as a well-meaning drunkard in the adaptation of Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" (2011) and as a pedantic logistician in the comedy "Ausgerechnet Sibirien" (D/RU 2012). Alongside Anthony Hopkins and Felicity Jones, he was part of the cast of the action film "Autobahn" (USA/GB/D), which was released in 2016.

For his leading role as a psychologist in Jan Bonny's "Über Barbarossaplatz" (2017, TV), he received the Best Actor award at the Baden-Baden Television Film Festival (alongside Bibiana Beglau and Franziska Hartmann).

In the years that followed, Król remained one of the most active actors in German television and cinema, taking on up to five roles a year. Here are just a few examples: In the Luther biopic "Zwischen Himmel und Hölle" (2017, TV), he portrayed Archbishop Albrecht von Brandenburg; in "Mackie Messer - Brechts Dreigroschenfilm" ("Mack the Knife – Brecht's Threepenny Film," 2018), he played the leader of the beggar mafia, Peachum; in "Berlin Alexanderplatz", he portrayed the drug-dealing boss Pums; and in "Schuss in der Nacht - Die Ermordung Walter Lübckes" (2020, TV), he embodied a gruff, uncorruptible investigator.

His role as the husband of a staunch East German official in the three-part series "Preis der Freiheit" won him the Best Actor award at the German Television Awards in 2020. Detlev Buck cast Król as Professor Kuckuck in "Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull" (2021), while Karoline Herfurth's bittersweet comedy "Wunderschön" (2022) cast him as a longtime husband whose wife feels unseen and unloved by him.
 
In addition to several TV productions, two feature films starring Król were released in 2023: In "Wochenendrebellen," ("Weekend Rebels") he played the grandfather of an autistic boy, and in "791 km," he portrayed a taxi driver tasked with an involuntary ride-share from Munich to Hamburg.

Joachim Król was one of the co-founders of Deutsche Filmakademie in 2003. He and his wife, actress and manager Heidrun Teusner-Król, live in Cologne.