He learned martial arts for the screen and television and to this day still practices. "" ""

Tse is the first of two children born to Hong Kong natives, actor Patrick Tse (謝賢) and actress Deborah Lee (狄波拉) raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.He has a younger sister, Jennifer Tse. He was educated at St. George's School, Vancouver, and later attended Hong Kong International School for one year before dropping out at grade 10. For a year he lived in Phoenix, Arizona before going back to Vancouver. He also studied music in Japan before returning to Hong Kong. He has dual Canadian and Hong Kong citizenship.

Tse was singing at a party for a family friend when he was discovered by Albert Yeung, head of Emperor Entertainment Group. In 1997 Tse would sign a record deal with EEG under the Fitto label, releasing his first album, "My Attitude". The album was ranked 3rd on the top selling CD chart of IFPI. It was that year where he won the most popular new artist award.

Tse received mainstream success in 1998 with songs like "早知" and "如果只得一星期" and became a prominent successor in the entertainment industry. His first Jade Solid Gold Top 10 song award came in 1999 with his popular song "非走不可".

In 2000, Tse released the album and song "活著VIVA", regarded as his most popular song ever, furthered his career significantly. It was after this song which he became an A-list singer at the time. In 2001, he released the album "玉蝴蝶." The album had two hit songs: "玉蝴蝶" and "潛龍勿用".

Nicholas Tse's most notable action films are Dragon Tiger Gate, Gen-X Cops, Young and Dangerous: The Prequel, and Invisible Target. He also collaborated with Jackie Chan in New Police Story. Tse has also acted in romance films including Tiramisu and Jade Goddess of Mercy. Only later in his career did he participate in comedy roles including Enter the Phoenix, McDull, the Alumni, A Chinese Tall Story. In the Hong Kong translated version of A Bug's Life (蟲蟲特工隊), the character Flik was dubbed by Tse. He also lent his voice to the Chinese animation film Lotus Lantern. Tse has also won a film award for Bodyguards and Assassins in 2010, at the 4th Asian Film Awards for Best Supporting Actor.

Tse has starred in two (or three) TVB Hong Kong local dramas depends how you look at it this including Aiming High (撻出愛火花), The Monkey King: Quest for the Sutra (齊天大聖孫悟空) which is more of comedy or adventure than a drama and the documentary On the Road II (向世界出發II) in Cambodia. The rest of his drama series are filmed and produced by Mainland China companies. Most of Tse's drama are wuxia series, which are based in ancient Chinese societies.

In the early morning of 23 March 2002, Tse crashed his Ferrari 360 Modena in Hong Kong Central. Initially it was claimed that his driver was responsible for the crash, but further investigation by the ICAC revealed the story was fabricated, involving three other men and a police officer. Tse spent two weeks in prison and was sentenced to 240 hours of community service for obstruction of justice. Officer Lau Chi-Wai was sentenced to six months in prison. Although some viewed this charge as lenient, the 240 hours was the maximum punishment for this offense, given that Tse was a young offender at the time (21 years and 7 months). Nonetheless, some claimed that the sentence would send out a wrong message to Hong Kong youths, but it could be argued handing out a harsher sentence because he was a celebrity is just as inappropriate as handing out a lighter one. This incident had caused him to have a downfall in popularity. Tse have said that money to him has gone up by 40% since the accident. The car was originally a gift from the company EEG, as Tse himself accounted for 56% of the revenue.

Tse has had his share of brush-ups with "paparazzi". A photographer of Sudden Weekly magazine accused Tse of hitting him outside a restaurant in Taiwan, bruising his nose and elbow. Although Tse denied the assault charge, he settled in July 2002.

Tse had another accident in 2003, where he crashed his Toyota Camry into Wan Chai train station. He was banned from driving for six months and fined HK$4000 for reckless driving. Prior to this, he was fined HK$7000 and had his license suspended for a year for two separate charges of speeding.