Tyson was born to British immigrants in Victoria in 1933, and grew up in Duncan B.C.A rodeo rider in his late teens and early twenties, he took up the guitar while recovering from an injury he sustained in a fall. He made his singing debut at the Heidelberg Café in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1956 and played with a rock and roll band, "The Sensational Stripes." After graduation from the Vancouver School of Art in 1958, Tyson moved to Toronto, Ontario where he commenced a job as a commercial artist. There he performed in local clubs and in 1959 began to sing on occasion with Sylvia Fricker. By early 1959 Tyson and Fricker were performing part-time at the Village Corner as "Ian & Sylvia." The pair became a full-time musical act in 1961 and married four years later. In 1969, they formed and fronted the group The Great Speckled Bird. Residing in southern Alberta, Tyson toured all over the world.

In 1989 he was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.

From 1971 to 1975, he hosted a national television program, The Ian Tyson Show, on CTV, based on the 1970-71 season music show Nashville North, later titled Nashville Now.

In 2005, CBC Radio One listeners chose his song "Four Strong Winds" as the greatest Canadian song of all time on the series 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version. There was strong momentum for him to be nominated the Greatest Canadian, but he fell short. He has been a strong influence on many Canadian artists, including Neil Young, who recorded "Four Strong Winds" for Comes a Time (1978). Johnny Cash would also record the same song for American V: A Hundred Highways (2006). Judy Collins recorded a version of his popular song, "Someday Soon", in 1968.

In 2006, Tyson sustained irreversible scarring to his vocal cords as a result of a concert at the Havelock Country Jamboree followed a year later by a virus contracted during a flight to Denver.This resulted in a notable loss of the remarkable quality and range he was known for; he has self-described his new sound as "gravelly".Notwithstanding, he released the album "From Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Stories" in 2008 to high critical praise. He was nominated for a 2009 Canadian Folk Music Awards for Solo Artist of the Year. The album includes a song about Canadian hockey broadcasting icon Don Cherry and the passing of his wife Rose, a rare Tyson cover written by Toronto songwriter Jay Aymar.

In 2010, Tyson put out his memoir The Long Trail: My Life in the West.Co-written with Calgary journalist Jeremy Klaszus, the book "alternates between autobiography and a broader study of [Tyson's] relationship to the 'West' — both as a fading reality and a cultural ideal."CBC's Michael Enright said the book is like Tyson himself — "straightforward, unglazed and honest."

Tyson has also written a book of young-adult fiction about his song "La Primera", called La Primera: The Story of Wild Mustangs.