Born in Bulls, New Zealand, Amon was the only child of wealthy sheep farmers and learned to drive on the family property at age six. He progressed through hillclimbing and national competition before English driver Reg Parnell spotted him at Lakeside in 1962 and invited him to race in Britain. Amon moved to England and debuted in Formula One at the 1963 Monaco Grand Prix with Parnell Racing, beginning a career in which mechanical misfortune would become his most consistent companion.
Amon joined Ferrari for 1967 after winning Le Mans the previous year, sharing the iconic Ford GT40 Mk II victory alongside Bruce McLaren in what became one of Ford's defining moments at the circuit. At Ferrari his debut year was his most successful in Formula One: he scored four third-place finishes and finished fifth in the World Drivers' Championship, while also winning the 1967 24 Hours of Daytona with Bandini.
In 1968 and 1969, driving for Ferrari, Amon qualified on the front row at multiple rounds — including three consecutive pole positions — but mechanical failures repeatedly denied him results. At the 1969 Spanish Grand Prix he dominated until his engine failed with a 40-second lead; at the Belgian Grand Prix he set the lap record at the original Spa-Francorchamps layout, a record that still stood at the time of his death in 2016 as the last race was held on the full-length circuit.
Amon's departure from Ferrari after 1969 launched a period of moves through March, Matra, Tecno, and his own Chris Amon Racing team that amplified rather than resolved his misfortune. With March in 1970 he ran second at Monaco until suspension failure with 20 laps remaining. At the 1971 Italian Grand Prix, driving for Matra, he qualified on pole but lost the race lead when his helmet visor detached at speed, forcing him to slow and fall to sixth. At the 1972 French Grand Prix he qualified on pole and led until a puncture dropped him to third.
His own car, the AF101, appeared at the 1974 Spanish Grand Prix but suffered brake failure after 22 laps. Amon's experience at Tecno in 1973 was so dispiriting he described the months spent with the team as feeling like ten seasons. His final Formula One appearance came with Wolf-Williams in 1976, after which a heavy qualifying accident in Canada prompted his retirement from the sport.
Mario Andretti memorably remarked that "if he became an undertaker, people would stop dying." Ferrari Technical Director Mauro Forghieri called him "by far the best test driver I have ever worked with" and believed he had every quality to be a world champion. Amon himself resisted the unlucky label, noting that he competed for fifteen years and survived serious accidents while contemporaries including his Le Mans co-driver Bruce McLaren were killed.
Amon holds the Formula One record for racing the most different makes of car, competing in machinery from 13 different constructors. He remains the only driver from New Zealand and Oceania to have raced for Scuderia Ferrari in Formula One. In 1977 he recommended a young Canadian driver named Gilles Villeneuve to Enzo Ferrari. After retiring from racing, Amon returned to New Zealand and managed the family farm, later consulting for Toyota New Zealand and assisting with the design of the Taupo Motorsport Park circuit.
He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1993 and inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 1995. The Toyota Racing Series driver's championship trophy bears his name. Amon died in Rotorua in August 2016 after a battle with cancer, aged 73.