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Sarsgaard was born at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, where his father was an Air Force engineer, where he later worked for Monsanto and IBM. His family moved over twelve times during his childhood, following his father's job. Raised Catholic, he served as an altar boy and attended Jesuit boys' school Fairfield Prep in Connecticut, where he became interested in movies. In an interview with the New York Times, when asked if he still had Catholic faith, Sarsgaard said: "I like the death-cult aspect of Catholicism. Every religion is interested in death, but Catholicism takes it to a particularly high level. [...] Seriously, in Catholicism, you're supposed to love your enemy. That really impressed me as a kid, and it has helped me as an actor. [...] The way that I view the characters I play is part of my religious upbringing. To abandon curiosity in all personalities, good or bad, is to give up hope in humanity."

Following his graduation from Fairfield Prep, he attended Bard College, in New York, for two years before transferring to Washington University in St. Louis in 1991. While at Washington University, Sarsgaard began performing in plays in an offshoot of New York's Actors Studio; His first role was as the servant Lawrence in Molière's Tartuffe. In 1993, he graduated with a degree in history, he moved to New York, where he co-founded an improvisational comedy troupe "Mama's Pot Roast".

When he was seven-years-old, Sarsgaard originally wanted to become a football player, and took up ballet to help improve his coordination. After suffering several bad concussions while playing soccer, he gave up football and became interested in writing and theater.

Among his most-notable romantic relationships, Sarsgaard has dated burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese and model/actress Shalom Harlow. Early in his film career, he dated and lived with photographer Malerie Marder, a close friend from his days at Bard, who had featured Sarsgaard in some of her early work. Sarsgaard has been in a relationship with actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, and is a close friend of her brother Jake Gyllenhaal, since 2002. In April 2006 they announced their engagement. They have a daughter Ramona, born October 3, 2006, and live in Brooklyn, New York.

Sarsgaard branched out with guest roles in television productions filmed in New York City, like Law & Order in 1995, and New York Undercover (1997) as well as an appearance in the 1997 HBO special Subway Stories. He appeared in his first feature Dead Man Walking (1995), where he was cast as a murdered victim, killed by Sean Penn's character.

His next film roles were in a series of independent features: Another Day in Paradise (1997), part of an ensemble cast that included James Woods, Melanie Griffith, Vincent Kartheiser, and Natasha Gregson Wagner, and In Desert Blue (1998), where he had a supporting role in the film. He received his substantial role in the 1998 film The Man in the Iron Mask, where he was cast as Raoul, the ill-fated son of John Malkovich's dueling Muskateer, Athos. The film uses characters from Alexandre Dumas' d'Artagnan Romances, and is very loosely adapted from some plot elements of The Vicomte de Bragelonne. The film received mixed reviews, but was a success at the box office, earning $182 million worldwide.

In 1999, Sarsgaard earned critical recognition in Kimberly Peirce's Boys Don't Cry, where he was cast as John Lotter, a violent charismatic ex-convict. The film is based on the real-life story of Brandon Teena, a transman who was raped and murdered in 1993 by Lotter and Tom Nissen after they found out he had female genitalia. Boys Don’t Cry received overwhelmingly positive acclaim from critics. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly in his review of the film noted: "Peter Sarsgaard and Brendan Sexton III are ominously authentic as violent Midwestern sociopaths driven to annihilate what they can't control." In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer review: "It's a marvelous performance supported ably by... Sarsgaard as the unpredictable, sociopathic Lotter."The film was screened at a special presentation at the 2000 Venice Film Festival. The film was ranked as one of "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies" by Premiere magazine.

He later appeared in the 2001 film The Center of the World, his first leading role, where he plays Richard Longman, a lonely young Internet entrepreneur, who skips out on his company's big initial public offering and pays a stripper named Florence (Molly Parker) $10,000 to fly to Las Vegas with him. Although the film was met with mixed reviews, A.O. Scott of the New York Times, noted the performances by both Sarsgaard and Parker, saying: "Peter Sarsgaard and Molly Parker... deserve medals for bravery in the service of an unworthy cause. Their performances... provide a rough grain of authenticity, capturing the blunted affect and aimless neediness of people in their 20's struggling to navigate a world of material abundance and impoverished emotional possibility." Scott concluded with, "Mr. Sarsgaard... makes Richard seem like a genuinely nice guy, too innocent to grasp the sleaziness of his bargain with Florence."

Sarsgaard next appeared in the drama K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), where he played a young Russian sailor lieutenant. The film was critically and financially unsuccessful. His next film was in the crime thriller film Empire (2002), where he had a supporting role. Also in 2002, he was cast in D. J. Caruso's The Salton Sea, where he played a meth addict.

2003 marked a significant turning point in Sarsgaard's career, when he starred in the feature film Shattered Glass. He depicted journalist Charles Lane, the lead editor of The New Republic. Shattered Glass is based on the real events of journalist Stephen Glass' career at the The New Republic during the mid-1990s and his fall when his widespread journalistic fraud is exposed. During promotion of the film, Sarsgaard noted of his portrayal of Lane: "I just wanted to get his perspective on the actual events. [...] I think that I tried to have some respect for myself and that way you're respecting the real person you're playing. I've done it a number of times. And it's always a little bit confusing. The best thing to do is just to ignore the fact, I think, that you're playing somebody who is a real life character." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote: "Sarsgaard makes a devastating impression, finding the steel of principle in the starchy Lane."The Chicago Tribune noted, "Sarsgaard plays Lane with great subtlety and grace. The character doesn't seethe with personal resentment; when he does a slow burn, he conveys a much deeper sense of a man's value system being violated past the breaking point." Sarsgaard's performance in the film earned him the Best Supporting Actor award from the Online Film Critics Society, his first Golden Globe Award nomination and an Independent Spirit Award nomination.

Following the success of Shattered Glass, Sarsgaard starred in several roles. In 2004, he starred in the comedy-drama Garden State, where he played Mark, the sarcastic best friend to Zach Braff's character. In the same year, he portrayed Clyde Martin, in the biographical film Kinsey, a movie about the life of Alfred Kinsey, played by Liam Neeson. Kinsey was Sarsgaard's first film role which featured full frontal nudity. Paul Clinton of CNN in review of the film noted: "Peter Sarsgaard, playing the bisexual researcher Clyde Martin, whose performance stands out, and confirms that he's without doubt one of the best character actors of his generation." When asked about his kissing scenes with Neeson in Kinsey, Sarsgaard said: It wasn’t as hard as, say, running around with all my gear on in Jarhead. I’d rather go for an awkward moment than physical exertion any day. The only thing that I think [male actors] get freaked out about when they have to do something like kiss a guy in a movie-when to their knowledge they’re straight-is that they’re afraid they’re going to be turned on. And if you’re not afraid that you’re going to be turned on-meaning that you know what you like-then really it’s not that hard.

In 2005, Sarsgaard starred in the drama The Dying Gaul, where he plays Robert Sandrich, a struggling screenwriter who has written a serious love story about a man and his terminally ill partner. The film garnered favorable reviews. In an interview, Sarsgaard said, he felt like he was playing a character based on Craig Lucas, the director, whom he describes as "elitist in a fun way". Because his character, a screenwriter, is also "elitist," when he sells his soul by compromising his artistic vision, "the conflict seems bigger. Anyone can sell their soul. Even people with integrity. There's always that temptation to guard against. Which is why it's best to keep as much as possible hidden." Sarsgaard attending the European premiere of The Dark Knight in 2008

Also in 2005, he had a supporting role in the suspense film The Skeleton Key. His next film role was in Robert Schwentke's thriller Flightplan (2005). In the film, Sarsgaard played an air marshall, who is ordered to keep guard of Jodie Foster's character. Flightplan was screened at a special presentation at the 30th annual Toronto International Film Festival in 2005. The film was a financial success, earning $223 million worldwide, his highest grossing film up to date. Though, the film was met with mixed reviews amongst critics. Sarsgaard starred in Jarhead (2005) opposite Jake Gyllenhaal. The movie is based on US Marine Anthony Swofford's 2003 Gulf War memoir of the same name.

Sarsgaard hosted Saturday Night Live (SNL) on January 21, 2006. In his introductory monologue, he tried to point out that he was a nice guy despite his sometimes macabre roles. Video clips were then played of Sarsgaard scaring the SNL cast. One sketch featured the Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) global scare was still fresh in many minds, and one of the skits included a promotion for the Peter Sarsgaard "SARS-Guard", a reference to the mania of facemasks worn in public by those fearing infection.

In 2007, he starred in supporting roles in Year of the Dog and Rendition. Year of the Dog is a dark comedy about a lonely middle-aged woman, played by Molly Shannon, who finds that animals are the only beings she can truly rely on. Sarsgaard plays Newt, an androgynous dog trainer, and love interest for Shannon's character. He starred alongside Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, Reese Witherspoon, and Jake Gyllenhaal in Rendition, a Gavin Hood-directed political thriller about the US policy of extraordinary rendition. The following year, he starred in the drama Elegy, based on a Phillip Roth novel, The Dying Animal. The film received favorable good reception amongst critics.

In 1995, Sarsgaard made his theatrical debut in the Off-Broadway production of Horton Foote's Laura Dennis, which was directed by James Houghton. Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote: "Mr. Sarsgaard... emerges as an actor to watch with a performance of breathtaking emotional conviction." The following year, he starred in Kingdom of Earth opposite Cynthia Nixon and directed by John Cameron Mitchell. His performance in the play received favorable reviews amongst critics. In October 2002, Sarsgaard returned to theater in a New York production of Lanford Wilson's Burn This, where he replaced Edward Norton.

In 2008, Sarsgaard made his Broadway debut at the Royal Court Theatre of Anton Chekhov's adaptation The Seagull alongside Kristin Scott Thomas, Mackenzie Crook and Carey Mulligan. In the production, he plays, Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin, a tortured writer who drives a rival to suicide and a young lover to ruin. For the role, Sarsgaard has been required to speak in a British accent, in which he stated to be "less liked by an American audience."

He will play Astrov in an upcoming off-Broadway production of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya at Classic Stage Company in New York City. The cast also includes Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mamie Gummer, Denis O'Hare, and George Morfogen. The production, directed by Austin Pendleton, is scheduled to begin previews on January 17 and end its limited run on March 1; an opening date has not been announced.