Akshaye Khanna was born in Mumbai. He is the son of actor Vinod Khanna. His older brother Rahul Khanna is also an actor. At the age of 22 in 1997, Akshaye made his debut in his father's production Himalaya Putra , which didn't do well at the box office. His next release was J. P. Dutta's Border . The film did very well at the box office, becoming the highest grossing film of that year and earning him a Filmfare Best Debut Award.

Most of his releases that followed failed to do well until Subhash Ghai's Taal & Farhan Akhtar's moderately successful Dil Chahta Hai which became the fifth highest grossing film of 2001. His performance was well received by critics and won him the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award.

Akshaye 's next release was Abbas Mustan's Humraaz in which he played a negative role for the first time. He then attempted comedy in Priyadarshan's Hungama and Hulchul . Both films did well at the box office, his releases, Shaadi Se Pehle and Aap Ki Khatir failed to do well at the box office, his other release that year, 36 China Town performed moderately well.

Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love was Khanna's first release in 2007. Although much hyped, the film failed to do well. This was followed by the suspense thriller   Naqaab which didn't do that well. Akshaye's   recent portrayal of Harilal Gandhi in the critically acclaimed, "Gandhi, My Father" was praised by critics and was mentioned as his best performance so far.