McGregor was born on 31 March 1971 in Perth, Scotland, and was raised in Crieff, Scotland. His mother, Carol Diane (née Lawson), is a retired teacher at Crieff High School and latterly deputy head teacher at Kingspark School in Dundee. His father, James Charles Stewart “Jim” McGregor, is a retired physical education teacher and careers master at Morrison’s Academy in Crieff. He has an older brother, Colin (born 1969), a former Tornado GR4 pilot in the Royal Air Force. His uncle is actor Denis Lawson and his aunt by marriage was actress Sheila Gish, which makes him a step-cousin of Gish’s actress daughters, Kay Curram and Lou Gish.

McGregor married Eve Mavrakis, a French-Greek Jewish production designer whom he met on the set of Kavanagh QC, in 1995. Together they have four daughters, one of them adopted from Mongolia. With his children raised in Mavrakis’s Jewish faith, McGregor said in 2016, “My involvement in religion has more to do with the Jewish faith now and not the Christian faith, which I was very vaguely brought up in.” McGregor has a heart and dagger tattoo of the names of Mavrakis and their daughters on his right arm. On 19 January 2018, McGregor filed for divorce from his wife, citing irreconcilable differences; the divorce was finalised on 13 August 2020. McGregor divides his time living between Los Angeles, California and St John’s Wood, London.

From November 1998 to March 1999, McGregor starred as Malcolm Scrawdyke in a revival of David Halliwell’s Little Malcolm and His Struggles Against the Eunuchs, directed by his uncle, Denis Lawson. The production was first staged at the Hampstead Theatre before transferring to the Comedy Theatre in London’s West End. In November 2001, McGregor made a cameo appearance in The Play What I Wrote.

A motorcyclist since his youth, McGregor undertook a marathon international motorbike trip with his best friend Charley Boorman and cameraman Claudio von Planta in 2004. From mid-April to the end of July, they travelled from London to New York via central Europe, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, Canada and the United States on BMW R1150GS Adventure motorbikes, for a cumulative distance of 22,345 miles (35,960 km). The trip included visits to several UNICEF programs along the route, and formed the basis of a television series and a best-selling book, both called Long Way Round.

McGregor is involved in charity work, including UNICEF UK since 2004 and GO Campaign. During the Long Way Round journey in 2004, McGregor and his travelling companions saw some of UNICEF’s work in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia, and during the Long Way Down trip in 2007, he and Charley Boorman did some work for UNICEF in Africa. McGregor hosted the annual Hollywood gala for the GO Campaign in 2009 and 2010. He has worked with the Children’s Hospice Association Scotland, as featured in Long Way Down. In 2012, he travelled with UNICEF immunization workers to remote parts of India, Nepal and the Republic of Congo for a BBC2 documentary entitled Ewan McGregor: Cold Chain Mission. In June 2015, McGregor read Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl” for the children’s fairytales app GivingTales in aid of UNICEF, together with other prominent figures such as Roger Moore, Stephen Fry, Joan Collins, Joanna Lumley, and Michael Caine.

From June 2005 to April 2007, McGregor starred alongside Jane Krakowski, Douglas Hodge and Jenna Russell in the Donmar Warehouse revival of Guys and Dolls after it transferred to the Piccadilly Theatre in London. He played the leading role of Sky Masterson. McGregor received the LastMinute.com award for Best Actor for his performance in 2005, and he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2007.

From December 2007 to February 2008, McGregor starred as Iago in Othello at the Donmar Warehouse alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor as Othello and Kelly Reilly as Desdemona. He reprised the role on BBC Radio 3 in May 2008.

The Long Way Round team reunited in 2007 for another motorcycle trip from John o’ Groats in Scotland to Cape Town in South Africa. The journey, entitled Long Way Down, lasted from 12 May until 5 August 2007. McGregor’s brother Colin joined the motorcycle team during the early stages of the Long Way Down journey, and his father Jim also rode on sections of both Long Way Round and Long Way Down.

In 2007, on an episode of Parkinson, McGregor said he had given up alcohol and that he had not had a drink in seven years. In 2008, McGregor had a cancerous mole removed from below his right eye.

In 2010, McGregor was appointed by the French government as a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres (Knight of the Order of the Arts and Letters). McGregor was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to drama and charity.

He narrated the Fulldome production Astronaut (2006), created for the National Space Centre. Around the same time, he also narrated the STV show JetSet (also 2006), a six-part series following the lives of trainee pilots and navigators at RAF Lossiemouth as they undergo a gruelling six-month course learning to fly the Tornado GR4, the RAF’s primary attack aircraft. McGregor starred opposite Colin Farrell in the Woody Allen film Cassandra’s Dream (2007), and he co-starred with Jim Carrey in I Love You Phillip Morris and appeared in Amelia (both 2009) alongside Hilary Swank. He played “the ghost” – the unnamed main character – in Roman Polanski’s political thriller The Ghost Writer (2010). He portrayed Camerlengo Patrick McKenna in Angels & Demons (also 2009), the film adaptation of Dan Brown’s novel of the same name. In 2011, McGregor starred in the British comedy Salmon Fishing in the Yemen directed by Lasse Hallström and co-starring Emily Blunt and Kristin Scott Thomas, for which he received his second Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nomination. At the same year, he was awarded with the SIFF Golden Space Needle Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting at the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival.

In 2012, he was a member of the Jury for the Main Competition at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. At the San Sebastián International Film Festival, he was awarded the Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award and became the youngest recipient of the award. In 2013, McGregor starred alongside Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts in August: Osage County, which was based on Tracy Letts’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. In 2012, he also starred in the disaster drama film The Impossible opposite Naomi Watts and Tom Holland.

McGregor appeared in a two-part BBC documentary in April 2012 entitled Ewan McGregor: Cold Chain Mission in which he travels by motorbike, boat, plane and foot to deliver vaccines to children in remote parts of India, Nepal and the Republic of Congo. The trip was part of his work as a UNICEF Ambassador.

McGregor has voiced his opposition to Brexit. Although opposed to Scottish independence from the United Kingdom in the 2014 Scottish referendum, he later declared during an interview that he would have voted for Scotland to leave the United Kingdom if he had been able to cast his vote the day after the United Kingdom left the European Union. In 2020 he voiced his support for Scottish independence, saying that “it’s time”.

In 2017, he reprised his role as Mark Renton in T2 Trainspotting. McGregor played Lumière in the live-action adaptation of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, directed by Bill Condon, with an ensemble cast featuring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens in leading roles, alongside Luke Evans, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, Stanley Tucci, Ian McKellen, and Emma Thompson. Filming began in May 2015 at Shepperton Studios in London, and the movie was released in March 2017. He then starred in FX anthology series in the third season of Fargo (both 2017), which garnered him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film for his dual performance of Emmit Stussy and Ray Stussy at the 75th Golden Globe Awards. In 2018, McGregor starred as the adult version of the titular character in Christopher Robin, a live-action adaptation of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh franchise directed by Marc Forster and starred alongside Hayley Atwell.

In 2019, McGregor starred as the older Danny Torrance in Doctor Sleep, the film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name. In 2020, he appeared opposite Margot Robbie in Warner Bros.’ DC Comics film Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), directed by Cathy Yan, as the main villain Roman Sionis / Black Mask.

On 15 August 2019, McGregor was reportedly in talks to reprise his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in an unnamed series centered around the character on Disney+. Later on 23 August 2019 at the D23 Expo, Lucasfilm officially announced said series with McGregor confirming his return as Kenobi.

On 14 December 2019, McGregor and Charley Boorman finished a three month journey on electric Harley-Davidson LiveWire motorcycles from Patagonia, Argentina to California, United States for an upcoming docuseries. On 27 May 2020, it was announced that the series would premiere on Apple TV+. The 10-episode series, the Long Way Up, debuted on 18 September 2020.

McGregor became a naturalised U.S. citizen after 2016 so he would be able to vote in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. During his journey on Long Way Up, he travelled entirely on his U.S. passport.