Amjad Khan was born on November 12, 1940, in Bombay, British India, into a Sunni Muslim family of Pashtun descent. He was the son of the actor Jayant. His younger brother, Imtiaz Khan, was also an actor. He was married to Shaila Khan and they had three children: Shadaab Khan, Ahlam Khan, and Seemaab Khan.

Before coming to films, Amjad was a theatre actor. His first role was as a child actor at the age of 11 in the film Nazneen in 1951. His next role was at the age of 17 in the film Ab Dilli Dur Nahin (1957). He worked in over 132 films in a career spanning nearly twenty years.

He gained popularity for villainous roles in mostly Hindi films, the most famous being Gabbar Singh in the 1975 classic Sholay and of Dilawar in Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978). He also appeared in many other Bollywood films, like Chacha Bhatija (1977), Namak Halaal (1982), and Kranti (1981).

Amjad Khan was known for his quick wit and often used it in his scenes to make them more dramatic. He was a vegetarian and was known to be a kind and gentle person. He was a fitness freak and a bull-worker enthusiast. He played badminton regularly. He had around 30-35 mugs of tea every day.

In 1972, he married his childhood friend Shehla Khan. A marriage that almost didn’t happen because Shehla’s father, Akhtar-ul-Iman (a noted writer), wanted her to study further. The rejection had made Amjad furious and he had told Shehla that: “You’ve rejected my proposal? If this was my village we’d have wiped out three generations of your family.”

Amjad Khan's most notable movies include Sholay (1975), Kranti (1981), Coolie (1983), Mard (1986), and Ram Lakhan (1989). He also appeared in advertisements as Gabbar Singh endorsing Britannia Glucose Biscuits (popularly known as Gabbar Ki Asli Pasand), the first incidence of a villain being used to sell a popular product.

Amjad Khan won the Filmfare Award for Best Villain in 1975 for his performance in Sholay.