Wood began her acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic and Once and Again. She made her debut as a leading film actress in Little Secrets (2002) and became well known after her transition to a more adult-oriented Golden Globe-nominated role in the teen drama film Thirteen (2003).

Wood continued acting mostly in independent films, including Pretty Persuasion (2005), Down in the Valley (2006), Running with Scissors (2006), and in the big studio production Across the Universe (2007). Wood's acting has drawn critical praise, and she has been described by The Guardian newspaper as being "wise beyond her years" and as "one of the best actresses of her generation." Her relationship with singer Marilyn Manson, to whom she was engaged in 2010, has received considerable news coverage.

Evan Rachel Wood was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, into a Jewish theatrical family. Her father, Ira David Wood III, is a locally prominent actor, singer, theater director and playwright who is the Executive Director of a local community theatre company called Theatre in the Park.

Her mother is Sara Lynn Moore (born March 6, 1958), an actress, director and acting coach. Wood's brother, Ira David Wood IV, is also an actor; and she has another brother, Dana. Her paternal aunt, Carol Winstead Wood, is a Hollywood production designer.

She and her brothers were actively involved in Theatre in the Park while growing up, including an appearance by her in the 1987 production of her father's renowned musical comedy adaptation of A Christmas Carol when she was just a few months old. Subsequently, she played the Ghost of Christmas Past in several productions at the theater, and she later starred as Helen Keller alongside her mother (who played Annie Sullivan) in a production of The Miracle Worker, under her father's direction.

Wood began her career appearing in several made-for-television films from 1994 onward, also playing an occasional role in the television series American Gothic. In 1996, Wood's parents separated and later divorced, and Wood moved with her mother to her mother's native Los Angeles County, California. After a one-season role on the television drama Profiler, Wood was cast in the supporting role of Jessie Sammler on the television show Once and Again.

Wood's first major screen role was in the low-budget 1998 film Digging to China, which also starred Kevin Bacon and Mary Stuart Masterson. The film won the Children's Jury Award at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival. Wood remembers the role as initially being hard, but notes that it "eventually led to her decision that acting is something she might never want to stop doing." She also had a role in Practical Magic, a family fantasy film directed by Griffin Dunne and starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, that same year.

Wood made her teenage debut as a leading film actress in 2002's Little Secrets, directed by Blair Treu. She played aspiring 14-year-old concert violinist Emily Lindstrom, and she was nominated for Best Leading Young Actress at the Young Artist Awards. That same year, Wood played a supporting role in the Andrew Niccol-directed science fiction satirical drama film, S1m0ne, which starred Al Pacino.

Wood's breakthrough movie role followed with the 2003 film Thirteen. She played the role of Tracy Louise Freeland, one of two young teens who sink into a downward spiral of hard drugs, sex, and petty crime. Her performance was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Actress - Drama and for a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for Best Actress. During the time of Thirteen's release, Vanity Fair named Wood as one of the It Girls of Hollywood, and she appeared, along with the other actresses, on the magazine's July 2003 cover. A supporting role opposite Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones in Ron Howard's The Missing, in which she played the kidnapped daughter, Lilly Gilkeson, in a Searchers-style western, followed the same year. Also in 2003 she played the part of Nora Easton in the episode "Got Murder?" of TV series C.S.I..

In 2005, Wood appeared in the Mike Binder-directed The Upside of Anger, opposite Kevin Costner and Joan Allen, a well-reviewed film in which Wood played Lavender "Popeye" Wolfmeyer, one of four sisters dealing with their father's absence. Her character also narrated the film.