Kai Scheve was born in Steinheidel-Erlabrunn (then GDR) on 11 February 1966. He completed a choral training (tenor) in Altenburg, followed by piano studies and drama training in Leipzig. After the fall of the Berlin Wall he studied acting at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main from 1989. 

Scheve made his film debut with a leading role in Maris Pfeiffer's relationship drama "Küß mich!" ("Kiss Me!", 1995). The following year he got an engagement at the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf (until 1998). From 2001 to 2004 he was playing at the Schauspielhaus Zürich.

Parallel to his theater work Scheve took part in numerous series and television films. His leading roles included "No Sex" (1999), a love comedy about impotence, the thriller "Ein Dorf sucht seinen Mörder" (2002) and the romantic comedy "Wie küsst man einen Millionär?" ("How to Catch a Millionaire", 2007). He also belonged to the ensemble of the comedy "Freie Fahrt ins Glück" (2006), the multi-parter "Der letzte Patriarch" (2009, as Mario Adorf's son) and the youth drama "Komasaufen" (2013). In the crime thriller "Tod auf der Insel" (2015) he was a murder suspect, in the thriller "Das Programm" (2016) the lover of a woman in a witness protection programme. 

Scheve played numerous guest roles in various TV series from 2004 to 2007, and was a regular cast member in the hotel series "Girlfriends - Freundschaft mit Herz". Between 2006 and 2017, he had a recurring role in the "Spreewaldkrimi" series, playing a hotel owner who becomes a murder suspect and eventually kills himself. From 2014 to 2018 he played a coroner in the series "Der Taunuskrimi". 

Under the direction of Maris Pfeiffer, Kai Scheve had a supporting role in the TV thriller "Getrieben" in 2018; director Michael Klier cast him as one of three egocentric brothers in the feature film "Idioten der Familie" ("Family Idiots") who for years left it to older sister to look after their youngest disabled sister. The film premiered at the Munich Film Festival in 2018 and was released in German cinemas in autumn 2019.