Strieber was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Karl Strieber, a lawyer and Mary Drought Strieber. He attended Central Catholic Marianist High School in San Antonio, Texas. He was educated at the University of Texas at Austin and the London School of Film Technique, graduating from each in 1968. He then worked for several advertising firms in New York City, rising to the level of vice president before quitting in 1977.

Strieber began his career as a novelist with the horror novels The Wolfen (1978) and The Hunger (1981), each of which was later made into a movie, followed by the less successful horror novels Black Magic (1982) and The Night Church (1983).

Strieber then turned to speculative fiction. He wrote Warday (1984), about the dangers of limited nuclear warfare, and Nature's End (1986), a novel about environmental apocalypse, collaboratively with James Kunetka. He is also the author of Wolf of Shadows (1985), a young adult novel set in the aftermath of a nuclear war.

In 1986, Strieber's fantasy novel Catmagic was published, co-authored with Jonathan Barry, who was billed as an aerospace industry consultant and a practicing witch. In the 1987 paperback edition, Strieber states that Jonathan Barry is fictitious and that he is the author of Catmagic. Strieber's personal publishing company, Walker & Collier, is named after two characters in Catmagic.

Later, less successful thrillers by Strieber (all now out of print) include Billy (1990), The Wild (1991), Unholy Fire (1992) and The Forbidden Zone (1993).

He later returned to the vampire saga that began with The Hunger, adding The Last Vampire (2001) and Lilith's Dream (2002) to the story.

His novel of alien abduction The Grays (2006) makes use of his alleged experiences of the phenomenon.

The author's short stories were collected in the 1997 limited edition volume Evenings with Demons. An unlimited edition was planned for 2007.

On December 26, 1985, Strieber reportedly was abducted from his cabin in upstate New York by non-human beings. He wrote about these experiences in his first non-fiction book, Communion (1987). Although the book is perceived generally as an account of alien abduction, Strieber admittedly draws no conclusions about his experience. He refers to the beings as "the visitors," a name chosen to be as neutral as possible to entertain the possibility that they are not extraterrestrial and may instead exist in his mind. He has repeatedly expressed his frustration with what he feels are fantastic claims attributed incorrectly to him.

Strieber wrote three additional autobiographies detailing his experiences with the visitors, Transformation (1988), Breakthrough (1995) and The Secret School (1996).

Other visitor-themed books of Strieber's include Majestic (1989), a novel about the Roswell UFO incident and The Communion Letters (1997, reissued in 2003), a collection of letters from readers reporting experiences similar to Strieber's. Confirmation (1998), despite its title does not propose that there has been 'confirmation' of UFOs or abductions. It analyzes the evidence and discusses what would be required to provide 'confirmation'. A 2006 novel, The Grays, presented his impression of alien contact through a fictional narrative.

Strieber wrote the screenplay for the 1989 film Communion, directed by Philippe Mora and starring Christopher Walken as Strieber. The movie covers material from the novel Communion and a sequel Transformation and which has themes not present in the books.

In the pre-dawn hours of June 6, 1998, Strieber was reportedly visited in his Toronto hotel room by a mysterious but apparently human man, who delivered an unsolicited lecture covering various subjects from spirituality to the environment. The man gave no name but Strieber has taken to referring to him as the "Master of the Key." Strieber first reported the visit in his online journal in 1998 and later gave a more complete account in his self-published book The Key (2001). Skeptics have pointed out that The Key and the 1998 journal entries give different (not contradictory but non-overlapping) accounts of what the man said.

Before publishing The Key, Strieber co-authored, with Art Bell, The Coming Global Superstorm (1999), a book about the possibility of rapid and destructive climate change. He has said that it was based largely on things the Master of the Key had told him about the environment. The book served as the inspiration for the disaster film The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and Strieber later wrote a novelization of that movie.

Another recent book Strieber says was inspired by the teachings of the Master of the Key is the self-published The Path (2002), which deals with the symbolism of the Tarot of Marseilles.

Whitley Strieber is currently the host of the paranormal and fringe science-themed internet podcast, Dreamland, available on a weekly basis from his website, Unknown Country. The program was a former companion show to Coast to Coast AM, with both shows founded by broadcaster Art Bell, before being taken on by Strieber in 1999.

Strieber has also returned to writing novels in recent years, including The Last Vampire (2001), and Lilith's Dream (2003), both being sequels to his 1981 vampire novel The Hunger. As well, he has authored 2012: The War For Souls (2007), a horror novel about an interdimensional invasion, and Critical Mass (2009), a thriller about nuclear terrorism. Strieber also co-authored the graphic novel The Nye Incidents (2008), along with co-authors Craig Spector and Guss Floor.

His new novel, The Omega Point, is a novel "based on a hidden connection between 2012 and the Book of Revelation". This title released in 2010 is Strieber's second novel dealing with the subject of 2012, the first being his novel "2012: The War for Souls."

"The Omega Point" details the coming events surrounding 2012. It is a story designed to test the current version of reality. In order to appreciate the content and set it in context necessitates an understanding, or a depth of research, concerning the global nature of reality. Strieber is effectively outlining three ways in which humanity may evolve. Each of which are equally disturbing. It seems however humanity has the choice and the choices have, over millennia, already been made. An entertaining, if not thought provoking, novel.

Strieber wrote an essay in Timothy Greenfield-Sanders nude portrait book, XXX: 30 Porn Star Photographs and appears in interviews in Thinking XXX, a 2004 HBO documentary about the making of that book.

He makes a cameo appearance in the 2009 movie Race to Witch Mountain.

In the TV series Babylon 5, there is an alien race that is similar to the Greys in Communion. This race is named the Strieb after Whitley Strieber.

Swedish Progressive Metal band Evergrey wrote their 2001 concept album, In Search of Truth, around the ideas presented in "Communion" after the band's singer Tom S. Englund read the book.

Whitley Streiber is currently a practicing Catholic. He was also formerly associated with the Gurdjieff Foundation. He left the Foundation shortly before the experiences reported in Communion but remains interested in the mystical teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky and makes frequent references to them in his non-fiction writings.

Strieber is married to Anne Strieber. They have a son, Andrew, an internet content producer, who appears in Communion and several of Strieber's novels (for example, Warday).