Fabian Hinrichs was born in Hamburg in 1974. He studied acting in Bochum, and from 2000 to 2005 was an ensemble member at the Berliner Volksbühne, where he worked with directors like Fred Kelemen, Christoph Schlingensief and Frank Castorf. Additionally, he also performed at the Schauspielhaus Bochum, the Deutsche Schauspielhaus Hamburg and at the Münchner Kammerspiele.

The leading part in Dito Tsintsadze's internationally acclaimed drama "Schussangst" ("Gun-Shy", 2003) marked his debut as a movie actor: Fabian Hinrichs played a lonely civil servant, who develops a manic crush on a young woman. His second feature film was the multi-award-winning and Oscar-nominated "Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage" ("Sophie Scholl - The Final Days", 2004), in which he played the part of Hans Scholl. The same year, he also appeared in the dark comedy "Die Bluthochzeit" ("The Wedding Day").

Apart from his theater and film work, Fabian Hinrichs also played memorable characters in TV series like "Bella Block" and "Einsatz in Hamburg". In 2009, he was nominated for the German Television Award for his turn as a tormented murder suspect and portrayed a football hooligan in the cinema release "66/67 – Fairplay war gestern" ("66/67 - Fairplay is Over").

Another leading role came with "Schwerkraft" ("Gravity"), the feature film debut of director Maximilian Erlenwein. The psychologically dense drama, which centers around a bank accountant (Hinrichs) who becomes more and more reckless after witnessing the suicide of a client, was awarded the main prize at the 2010 Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis. Moreover, Hinrichs received the Special Prize of the jury for his extraordinary performance and shortly afterwards was also nominated for the 2010 German Film Prize.

In Lars Jessen's culture clash comedy "Hochzeitspolka" (2010) he was a buddy of Christian Ulmen's main character.

At the theatre Hinrichs was celebrated for his performance in René Pollesch's solo play "Ich schau dir in die Augen, gesellschaftlicher Verblendungszusammenhang!" at the Berliner Volksbühne in 2010 and was voted Actor of the Year in the critics' survey of the trade journal "Theater heute". The play "Rust – ein deutscher Messias" had its premiere at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg in October 2010, in which Hinrichs played the leading role of Mathias Rust, the German aviator known for his illegal landing near Red Square in Moscow. For his role as first-person narrator in René Pollesch's play "Kill your darlings! Streets of Berladelphia" he won the Alfred Kerr Acting Prize at the Berlin Theatertreffen in 2012.

Hinrich's performance as the ingenious, lovable and annoying assistant to the two investigators in the Munich "Tatort" episode "Der tiefe Schlaf" received much attention at the end of 2012. The character was particularly popular with viewers and his sudden on-screen death caused a lot of upset. Hinrichs received nominations for Best Actor from the German Academy for Television and the German Actor Award. In 2014 he was awarded the Ulrich Wildgruber Prize. Not least because of the above-mentioned success of his prior performance in the "Tatort" series, Hinrichs became a regular character in 2015 as chief commissioner of the "Tatort" team that investigates in Franconia.

In the highly acclaimed political thriller "Der Fall Barschel" (2015, TV) Hinrichs played a journalist who convicts CDU Prime Minister Uwe Barschel of lying. After a rogue role as an unscrupulous anti-terror agent in the TV thriller "Unterm Radar" ("Under the Radar", 2015), Hinrichs played the theologian and reformer Georg Spalatin in the historical film "Zwischen Himmel und Hölle" ("Reformation", 2017, TV).

On the big screen Fabian Hinrichs mainly appeared in supporting roles. In Doris Dörrie's "Alles inklusive" ("The Whole Shebang", 2014) he was a holiday acquaintance of Nadja Uhl's main character, in the much-praised road movie "Beck's letzter Sommer" ("Beck's Last Summer", 2015) a nasty music producer. He had a striking role as a shrewd nuclear power lobbyist in Oliver Haffner's "Wackersdorf" ("Wackersdorf - Be Alert, Courageous and Solidaric", 2018). The streaming series "8 Tage" ("8 Days", 2019) showed him as a ministerial speaker who wants to save his family from an impending asteroid impact. Hinrichs also continued to play the Franconia "Tatort" commissioner Felix Voss.

At the Max Ophüls Film Festival in January 2020, the tragicomedy "Irgendwann ist auch mal gut" celebrated its premiere, with Hinrichs as a conservative undertaker who is confronted with his parents' completely thought-through suicide plan.