Martial artist and Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen was born in Canton, China, on July 27, 1963 to newspaper editor Klyster Yen and martial arts master Bow Sim Mark. At the age of four, Donnie started taking up martial arts from his mother who taught him tai chi and wushu until he was eleven when he moved to Boston, MA, with his family. From there, Donnie continued with tai chi and wushu but soon also began experimenting with various others martial art styles, such as taekwondo, kickboxing and boxing, after developing a huge interest in martial arts. When he was sixteen, his parents sent him to Beijing Wushu Academy so he could train Chinese MA under Master Wu Bin, well known as the coach of Jet Li. He underwent intensive training for three years.

After those years passed by, he was about to leave back to the States, but made a side trip to Hong Kong, and there he was accidentally introduced to famous Hong Kong action director Woo-ping Yuen, who was responsible for bringing Jackie Chan to super stardom and was looking for someone new to star in his movies. Donnie was offered a screen test and thereafter a 4-picture deal after passing it; first starting with stunt doubling duty on the movie Qi men dun jia (1982) before starring in his first film, Siu Tai Gik (1984), at the age of 19. He continued his early film career working independently with Woo-ping Yuen and at TVB, gaining more acting experience, and then started getting attention in the late 1980s and mid 1990s after he was offered a contract by the D&B Films Co. whom gave him major roles in the well known films Dak ging to lung (1988), Wong Ka Si Sei IV - Sik Gik Sing Yan (1989) and Sai hak chin (1990) which got his reputation spread out within the Hong Kong film circuit. But after a while, the company did not do well and in the end went bankrupt which left Donnie with no choice but to go back to TVB and venture into low-budget film-making.

But the misfortune didn't last long. Famous director Hark Tsui had just made a successful attempt to revive the kung fu genre with Wong Fei Hung (1991) which starred Jet Li, and was looking for someone to play the new nemesis in the sequel Wong Fei Hung II - Nam yi dong ji keung (1992). Through Donnie's earlier films and his rep as one of the most effective pound-for-pound on-screen fighters, Hark became hooked and decided to approach, discuss, and eventually cast him in the role of General Lan which became a turning point in Donnie's career. His fight scenes with Jet Li revolutionized the standards of Hong Kong martial arts choreography at the time and are still regarded as among the best fights ever created in Hong Kong film history. Another acclaim by critics and movie goers was Donnie's acting performance, which was so outstanding that he was nominated for the "Best Supporting Actor" award at the 1992 Hong Kong Film Awards.

After that excellent performance, Donnie starred in other successful and classic movies, such as Sun lung moon hak chan (1992) for director Raymond Lee and San lau sing woo dip gim (1993) by Michael Mak, but still continued to work with Woo-ping Yuen on movies including So Hak-Yee (1993), Siu nin Wong Fei Hung ji: Tit Ma Lau (1993) and Wing Chun (1994). But after that, both of them decided it was best to work on their own so they ended up going separate ways and haven't collaborated with each other ever since.

During this period, Donnie got into TV work and worked on a couple of TV series for ATV as actor and action director. The first was "Hung Hei Gun" (1994) which depicted the life of martial arts legend Hung Hei-Kwan. The TV series was a big success and Donnie continued the success and starred in and action directed "Jing wu men" (1995), also successful, which retold the story of Chen Zhen, the character made famous by Bruce Lee in the original film classic with the same title. Aside the TV work, Donnie was offered roles by prolific director/producer Jing Wong in movies such as Dou Sing 2 - Gai Tau Dou Sing (1995) and got other offers which includes Ma hei siu ji (1994) where he co-starred with local action star Biao Yuen, and Ah sau ging gat si gou aat sin (1995) which was shot in the Philippines.

In 1996, after leaving out a contract deal placed by Jing Wong, Donnie signed with the independent film company My Way Film Co. and started experimenting with directing and camera shooting. In 1997, he finally made his directorial debut with Chin Long Chuen Suet (1997) and had created a different style of martial arts choreography which made a huge impact around the world for its' daring, braving, and fresh attempt to accomplish something new for the then dying martial arts action trend; with equally many both admiring and looking down on this style. Donnie continued to work behind-the-scenes on projects such as Sat Sat Yan, Tiu Tiu Mo (1998), Sun Tong San Tai Hing (1998), the German-produced TV movie Der Puma - Kämpfer mit Herz (1999) (TV) and its' TV series counterpart one year after.

In 2000, things took a turn for Donnie once again when US-based film company Dimension Films called and offered him a major role in Highlander: Endgame (2000) as the immortal Jin Ke, that became his Hollywood debut. But sadly, the movie didn't performed very well at the box-office and many fans consider it to be a part of its' own in the franchise. Despite this, others also consider Donnie's action scenes to be highlights of the movie; especially his duel with Adrian Paul. To the movie's as well as Miramax's credit though, offers followed shortly afterward. Donnie was invited to work behind the camera on Shura Yukihime (2001) for Japanese director Shinsuke Sato and Blade II (2002) by Guillermo del Toro, the latter of which he also appeared in briefly as the mute vampire Snowman.

In 2002 and 2003 respectively, Donnie's career went sky-high after he was offered and took up two memorable roles. Firstly, highly acclaimed Chinese director Yimou Zhang offered Donnie the part of assassin Sky in Ying xiong (2002) that starred Jet Li and resulted the most anticipated fight scene of 2002 and huge income at the box-offices around the world. Secondly, director David Dobkin casted him alongside Jackie Chan as the traitorous Wu Chow in Shanghai Knights (2003), the follow-up to Shanghai Noon (2000), which marked the first time Donnie worked with him in his career. Both of these collaborations gave Donnie Yen more recognition in the States and back in Hong Kong which in turn gave him more opportunities as an actor and action director.