Zeta-Jones was born Catherine Zeta Jones in Swansea, a maritime city located on the southern coast of Wales. Her mother, Patricia (née Fair), was an Irish seamstress, and her father, David "Dai" Jones (b. 1946), was a Welsh sweet factory owner.

Zeta-Jones has two brothers, David and Lyndon. Her father's cousin is married to singer Bonnie Tyler, who is also from Swansea, Wales. Her uncle owns Swansea's Škoda car dealership as well as Llanelli A.F.C. football club. Her name stems from those of her grandmothers — her maternal grandmother, Catherine Fair, and her paternal grandmother, Zeta Jones (1917 - August 14, 2008) (the name "Zeta" is of Greek origin).

Zeta-Jones was raised Catholic. After her parents won £100,000 at bingo in the 1980s, they moved to St. Andrews Drive in Mayals, an upper-class area of Swansea. Zeta-Jones attended Dumbarton House School in Swansea.

Zeta-Jones left school early to further her acting ambitions without obtaining O levels and went on to attend The Arts Educational Schools in Chiswick, west London, for a full-time three-year course in musical theatre.

Zeta-Jones' stage career began in childhood. She often performed at friends and family functions when she was younger. She was part of a Catholic congregation's performing troupe before she was 10. Zeta-Jones made her professional acting debut when she played the lead in Annie, a production at Swansea's Grand Theatre.

She also starred in a version of Bugsy Malone. When she was 14, Mickey Dolenz stopped by the Grand Theatre to audition her for The Pyjama Game. He was so impressed with her performance that she was offered the opportunity to join his show for the rest of the tour. By 1987 Zeta-Jones was starring in 42nd Street as Peggy Sawyer in the West End.

Zeta-Jones was cast in the leading role after the actress playing Peggy Sawyer and the understudy fell ill. She also played Mae Jones in a Kurt Weill opera called Street Scene with the English National Opera at the London Coliseum in 1989. Once the show closed, the actress travelled to France, where she received the lead role in French director Philippe de Broca's 1001 Nights (also known as Sheherazade), her feature film debut, also noteworthy for being the first of many roles in with Zeta-Jones appeared nude.

Her Welsh and exotic looks, along with her singing and dancing ability, suggested a promising future, but it was in a straight acting role, as Mariette in the successful British television adaptation of H. E. Bates' The Darling Buds of May, that brought her to public attention.

She briefly flirted with a musical career, beginning with a part in the 1992 album: Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of Spartacus, from which the single "For All Time" was released in 1992. It reached #36 in the UK charts. She went on to release the singles "In the Arms of Love," "I Can't Help Myself," and a duet with David Essex, "True Love Ways.", reaching #38 in the UK singles chart in 1994. She also starred in an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, as well as in Christopher Columbus: The Discovery.

She continued to find moderate success with a number of television projects, including The Return of the Native (1994) and the mini-series Catherine the Great (1995). She also appeared in Splitting Heirs (1993), a comedy starring Eric Idle, Rick Moranis and John Cleese.

In 1996, she was cast as the evil aviatrix "Sala" in the action film, The Phantom, based on the comic created by Lee Falk. Her character did her best to kill Billy Zane's Phantom, while assisting villain Xander Drax (Treat Williams) in taking over the world with a weapon of doom.

The following year, she starred in the CBS mini-series Titanic, which also starred Tim Curry and Peter Gallagher. Steven Spielberg, who noted her performance in the mini-series, recommended her to Martin Campbell, the director of The Mask of Zorro.

Zeta-Jones subsequently landed a lead role in the film, alongside fellow Welsh compatriot Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas. She learned dancing, riding, sword-fighting and took part in dialect classes to play her role as Elena.

Commenting on her performance, Variety noted, "Zeta-Jones is bewitchingly lovely as the center of everyone's attention, and she throws herself into the often physical demands of her role with impressive grace." In 1999, she co-starred with Sean Connery in the film Entrapment, and alongside Liam Neeson and Lili Taylor in The Haunting.

In 2000, she starred in the critically acclaimed Traffic with future husband Michael Douglas. Traffic earned praise from the press, with the critic for the Dallas Observer calling the movie "a remarkable achievement in filmmaking, a beautiful and brutal work". Zeta-Jones' performance earned her her first Golden Globe nomination, as Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture.

In 2002, Zeta-Jones played Velma Kelly in the film Chicago. Velma Kelly, is a glamorous Chicago jazz stage performer who has to do time after killing her sister and her husband. Her performance was praised by the press, among them were the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which stated, "Zeta-Jones makes a wonderfully statuesque and bitchy saloon goddess."

Zeta-Jones won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. For her role in Chicago, she specifically requested a 1920s-style short bob wig, so her face could be seen and fans would not doubt she did all her dancing herself.

In 2003, she voiced Marina in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas opposite Brad Pitt, as well as starring in Intolerable Cruelty with George Clooney. In 2004 she was in The Terminal, as well as Ocean's Twelve, the sequel to Ocean's Eleven. In 2005, she reprised her role as Elena in The Legend of Zorro, the sequel to The Mask of Zorro.

In 2007, she starred in the romantic comedy No Reservations, a remake of the German film Mostly Martha. She starred in and produced the rugby union-related comedy, Coming Out. The film was produced by her company Milkwood Films.