Christian Steyer was born December 6, 1946, in Falkenstein, Saxony, as the son of a minister. As a child his father taught him to play the piano and the organ. At the age of 13, he started to attend a special class at Leipzig Musik-Konservatorium. From 1965 to 1970, Steyer studied music in Leipzig and in Dresden where he majored on the piano. He graduated with a diploma and subsequently also studied acting at Ernst Busch's drama school in Berlin. After two years of actor's training, Steyer received his acting diploma in 1972 and subsequently worked as a freelance singer, composer, pianist, and actor.

Still in 1972, Steyer made his debut in front of the camera as student Tommy in Lothar Warneke's film "Es ist eine alte Geschichte" ("It Is an Old Story"). In Heiner Carow's film "Die Legende von Paul und Paula" ("The Legend of Paul and Paula"), he was seen as fairground villain Colly. Furthermore, Steyer starred in the role of weird Lutz in the film "Für die Liebe noch zu mager?" ("Too Skinny for Love") and appeared in the "Polizeiruf 110"-episode "Konzert für einen Außenseiter". With these films, Steyer strengthened his role image as a charming, yet careless young man with curly hair.

During the mid-1970s, Steyer also started to write music for movie and TV productions. He wrote his first film score for the children's film "Der Untergang der Emma", directed by Helmut Dziuba. During the following years, he wrote the scores for several children's films, as well as for several "Polizeiruf 110" episodes. Steyer wrote his first orchestra score for Dieter Scharfenberg's fantasy film "Die vertauschte Königin". In the film, he also took over a role as an actor. For the following years, Steyer appeared as an actor, for instance, in "Der Traum vom Elch" (1986), in Lothar Warneke"s film "Blonder Tango" (1985), or in "Die Schauspielerin" ("The Actress", 1988), and likewise worked as a film score composer. He, for instance, wrote the film score for Helmut Dziuba's youth film "Verbotene Liebe" ("Forbidden Love", 1989).

After the German reunification, Steyer continued his career as actor, musician, and composer. He mainly appeared in TV productions during the 1990s and wrote several film scores for movie productions, including "Kinderspiele" ("Child’s Play", 1992), "Das Leben ist eine Baustelle" ("Life Is All You Get", 1997), both directed by Wolfgang Becker, or "Zugvögel… Einmal nach Inari" ("Trains "n" Roses", 1996). In Matthias Keilich's graduation film "Nicht Fisch Nicht Fleisch" ("Neither Fish, Nor Fowl", 2002), Steyer played the German adoptive father of the protagonist.

In 2004, Steyer wrote the film scores for Bernd Sahling's award-winning children"s film "Die Blindgänger" ("The Blind Flyers") and for Peter Lichtefeld's film "Playa del Futuro". In recent years, Christian Steyer has increasingly focused on writing music. Still, he played a supporting role in Matthias Keilich's film "Könige der Nutzholzgewinnung" ("Lumber Kings").