Hozier was born Andrew Hozier-Byrne on 17 March 1990, which happened to be St. Patrick's day, in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland. The son of a local blues musician, he grew up with the blues being played all around him. He joined his first band when he was 15. He played R&B, soul, gospel and of course, blues. He started a degree in music at Trinity College Dublin, where he was involved with the Trinity Orchestra. However, he dropped out in his first year to record demos for Universal Music. From 2009 to 2012, he sang with Anuna, an Irish choral group, and toured internationally.

He shot to fame following the arrival of his EP "Take Me to the Church" in 2013. The EP's title track spawned a music video that highlights gay discrimination in Russia. The clip went viral, racking up millions views on YouTube. The song also became a hit that soared high on charts in the U.S. and the U.K.

In spring 2014, Hozier released his second EP, "From Eden". Later in fall, he finally put out his debut LP. Titled "Hozier", the album contains some tracks from Hozier's previous two EPs. It arrived in Ireland in September 2014 and later globally in October. It peaked at No. 2 on Billboard 200 after selling 58,000 copies.

One of the singles off his self-titled album, "Take Me to Church", achieved widespread global popularity and topped charts in 12 countries. It was nominated for Song of the Year at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards and won Top Rock Song at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards. The song was additionally nominated for Top Streaming Song at the latter award show, but was defeated by John Legend's "All of Me".

In November of that year, Hozier was named VH1's Artist of the Year based on fan votes. In June 2016, he released "Better Love" which served as the soundtrack to "Legend of Tarzan", which starred Alexander Skarsgard, Margot Robbie, Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson among others. The music video for the song was released on the same day as the song's release.

Hozier didn't release any new music until September 2018, when he unveiled his third EP "Nine Cried Power" that peaked at No. 5 on Billboard's Top Alternative Albums chart. Its lead single, "Nina Cried Power" featuring Mavin Staples, topped Billboard's Adult Alternative Songs airplay chart. The song was inspired by the legacies of artists like Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, Billie Holiday, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Staples himself.

Prior to releasing his sophomore effort "Wasteland, Baby!", Hozier released songs such as "Movement", "Almost (Sweet Music)" and "Dinner and Diatribes". The album itself hit the stores on March 1, 2019 and debuted atop Billboard 200 chart in addition to receiving generally positive reviews from music critics. It became his first No. 1 album on the chart as well as marked the first No. 1 rock album in 2019. Racking up 89,000 equivalent album units, it also nabbed the largest sales week for a rock album since Mumford & Sons' "Delta" sold 214,000 units on December 1, 2018.