Uwe Ochsenknecht was born January 7, 1956, in the Hessian city of Biblis and grew up in Mannheim. He became attracted to acting already during his school days and was able to focus completely on acting after being expelled from school. From 1974 on, he attended drama school in Bochum and starred in some minor roles in several TV series. Ochsenknecht then became known to a wider public with his performance in "Das Boot" ("The Boat").

He then starred in "Der Rekord" ("The Record", 1984) und "Vergesst Mozart" ("Forget Mozart", 1984) but suddenly became a newcomer star with his part in Doris Dörrie's comedy "Männer" ("Men", 1985): Ochsenknecht won the German Actors award as best young actor. In Helmut Dietl's contemporary satire "Schtonk!", Ochsenknecht made a dashing performance as the clever forger of the Hitler diaries.

At the beginning of the 1990s. Ochsenknecht also started a career in the music business and published several albums. He then again starred in several TV and movie productions such as "Die Sache ist gelaufen" (1985), "Fussball ist unser Leben" ("Soccer Rules!", 2000), "Dune – Der Wüstenplanet" ("Dune", 2000), "Die wilden Kerle" ("The Wild Soccer Bunch", 2003), "Luther" (2003), "Vom Suchen und Finden der Liebe" ("About the Looking for and the Finding of Love", 2005), "Die Wilden Kerle 2" ("The Wild Soccer Bunch 2", 2005), and "Die Bluthochzeit" ("The Wedding Party", 2005).

In 2006, Ochsenknecht appeared in Oskar Roehler's film adaptation of Michel Houellebecq's "Elementarteilchen" ("Elementary Particles"). He also starred in the movie "Die wilden Kerle 3" ("The Wild Soccer Bunch 3") and in the satire "Tollpension", a TV production.

In the years that followed, he appeared in a large number of television productions. In Franziska Buch's award-winning comedy "Angsthasen" he played an unusual psychotherapist, in Urs Egger's black-humoured relationship satire "Böses Erwachen" (2009) as a disloyal husband and in Dieter Wedel's highly acclaimed two-parter "Gier" ("Greed") as a financial investor

On the big screen, Ochsenknecht had supporting roles as a laid-back adventurer in Leander Haussmann's "Warum Männer nicht zuhören und Frauen schlecht einparken" ("Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps", 2007) and as a running coach in the drama "Lauf um Dein Leben - vom Junkie zum Ironman" ("Run for Your Life", 2008). In Mike Marzuk's teenage love story "Sommer" ("Summer", 2008) he portrayed the father of the protagonist played by his real-life son Jimi Blue, in Uli Edel's drama "Zeiten ändern dich" ("Time You Change", 2010) he appeared as the suspicious father of rapper Bushido's girlfriend.

In "Kleine Morde" ("Little Murders", 2012), Ochsenknecht and his son Jimi Blue stood in front of the camera once again as father and son: Adnan Köse's science fiction drama is set in a near future in which the age of criminal responsibility is abolished. In a first demonstration of the new regulation, the 12-year-old son of a judge is put on trial for an alleged murder. In "Ludwig II." (2012) by Marie Noelle and Peter Sehr, he takes on the roll of Prince Luitpold.

Above all, Uwe Ochsenknecht remained very present on TV. He was a regular character in the crime series "Der Bulle und das Landei" (2010-2017) and made appearances in an almost endless abundance of TV films, mostly comedies. Examples are Rainer Matsutani's "Der Vollgasmann" (2012), Max Färberböck's "Mein Vater, seine Freunde und das ganz schnelle Geld" (2013), Vivian Naefe's "Zeit der Zimmerbrände" (2014) and Uwe Janson's satire "Die Udo Honig Story" (2015), based on the tax evasion case of football manager Uli Hoeneß. For this role Ochsenknecht was nominated for the German Actors Award. He also belonged to the ensemble of the mini-series "Ku'damm 56" (2016).

On the big screen, Ochsenknecht had a challenging role as the severely disabled father of a teenager in the award-winning tragicomedy "Nena" (NL/DE 2014). Otherwise, his appearances have been mostly limited to smaller yet striking supporting roles. In the children's book adaptation "Das kleine Gespenst" ("The Little Ghost", 2013) he played the double role of a mayor and the general Torsten Torstenson; in the comedy "StadtLandLiebe" (2016) he made life difficult for two townspeople as a grumpy villager; and in the successful social comedy "Willkommen bei den Hartmanns" ("Welcome to Germany", 2016) he portrayed a plastic surgeon.

In 2017 Ochsenknecht had two leading roles on the big screen: In Sabine Derflinger's controversial sexism comedy "Anna Fucking Molnar" (A), he is the father of the title character; and in the children's film "Burg Schreckenstein II - Küssen (nicht) verboten" ("Shiverstone Castle 2"), he played the unfortunate cousin of the lord of the castle. In March 2018 the children's film "Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer" ("Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver") followed, with Ochsenknecht as King Alfred the Quarter-to-Twelfth.

In 2019, he received the Hessian Television Award for his leading role in the six-part media satire "Laubaule & Erben," about the fortunes of a publishing heir from a completely different field. Also in 2019, Ochsenknecht took a leading role in the new TV series "Die drei von der Müllabfuhr".

On the big screen, he played a gallant dancer in the musical "Ich war noch niemals in New York" (2019), as Master Niklaus in the literary adaptation "Narziss und Goldmund" ("Narcissus and Goldmund", 2020), again as King Alfons in "Jim Knopf und die Wilden 13" ("Jim Button and the Wild 13", 2022) and as a prehistoric man in the comedy "Die Geschichte der Menschheit - leicht gekürzt" (2022). Markus Goller cast him in the melancholy comedy "Die Ironie des Lebens" as an aging and slightly jaded comedian who embarks on an eventful tour with his terminally ill ex-wife.