Born in New York City, Elliott is an unusual comedian that made his debut playing an assortment of oddball characters on NBC's Late Night With David Letterman in the early 1980s. Characters included "The Regulator Guy", "The Fugitive Guy" (a parody of the TV series, The Fugitive), "The Guy Under the Seats", "Marlon Brando", "Chris Elliott, Jr." (a spoof of talk-show host Morton Downey, Jr), and others.
In 1990, Elliott started his own sitcom, which was called Get A Life, about a 30 year old paperboy named "Chris Peterson" that lived at home with his parents. Elliott's real life father, Bob Elliott appeared in the show as Peterson's father.
Elliott became a cast member of the popular Saturday Night Live in 1994. Unfortunately, this is regarded as one of the worst seasons in the history of that show, and his work was widely panned.
Also that year, Elliott starred in his first movie entitled Cabin Boy, which also featured a short appearance by Elliott's old boss, David Letterman and was produced by Tim Burton.
Elliott has also appeared in films like Groundhog Day, and The Abyss.