Ryan Coogler lived in Oakland, California until age eight when he moved to Richmond, California. During his youth, he ran track and played football. He attended Saint Mary's College of California on a football scholarship, playing as a wide receiver, to study chemistry. While he was there, his English professor Rosemary Graham encouraged him to pursue a career in screenwriting. After Saint Mary's canceled its football program, he received another scholarship to attend Sacramento State, where he majored in finance and took film classes. He then attended USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he made a series of short films.

While at USC, Coogler directed three award-winning short films: Locks (Tribeca Film Festival, Dana and Albert Broccoli Award for Filmmaking Excellence), Gap (Jack Nicholson Award for Achievement in Directing), and Fig (HBO Short Filmmaking Award, DGA Student Filmmaker Award).

His first feature-length film, Fruitvale (later retitled Fruitvale Station), tells the story of the last 24 hours of the life of Oscar Grant, who was shot to death by a police officer at Oakland's Fruitvale BART station on January 1, 2009. The film was developed and produced by Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker. "I've worked with a number of truly unique voices, true auteurs," Whitaker said of Coogler, "and I can tell when I'm talking to one."

After the film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film, The Weinstein Company acquired the distribution rights for approximately US$2 million. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival where it won the award for Best First Film.

Coogler has worked since age 21 as a counselor with incarcerated youth at San Francisco's Juvenile Hall, following in the footsteps of his father, who has long shared the same occupation.

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