The Game was born Jayceon Terrell Taylor on November 29, 1979, in Compton, California, a low-income crime-ridden city, situated south of downtown Los Angeles and in southern Los Angeles County to George Taylor and Lynette Baker, who both were Crips. Through his father, Taylor is of African American, Mexican and Native American descent. He grew up in a primarily Crip gang neighborhood known as Santana Blocc, although he grew up to become a member of the Bloods. In an October 2006 interview with MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway, The Game described his family as "dysfunctional".

From his 1992 album, he released "True Colors/It's On", "All Eyez", "What Your Life Like", and "Baby You" feat. Jason Derulo.

In high school, Taylor was involved in Sports including basketball and track. In 1999, Taylor claims that he enrolled in Washington State University on a basketball scholarship and was expelled after a short time when caught with drugs in his possession. However, the university's athletic department denies that Taylor was ever enrolled in their athletic program and denies the drug claims.

In 2000, The Game appeared on the dating television show Change of Heart; in the segment his partner criticized him for "acting macho when in reality is said to be sensitive." The episode came to an end where a mutual friend of The Game and his partner suggested in them staying together, The Game decided to stay together but was rebuffed by the offer when his partner agreed to a change of heart and The Game was subsequently dumped on TV.

While recovering in the hospital from gunshot wounds he incurred in late 2001, Game told his brother to go out and buy all of the classic hip-hop albums. Over the course of five months, he studied all of the various influential rap albums and developed a strategy to turn himself into a Rapper. With the help of his older brother Big Fase, they founded the label. It originally featured such artists as Glasses Malone, Vita, and Nu Jerzey Devil, along with Game himself. His stage name was coined by his grandmother, who was a huge fan of the 1997 blockbuster, The Game. Game first gained prominence when he attended a hip-hop summit hosted by Russell Simmons and Louis Farrakhan. After he had fully recovered, Game and Big Fase made a mixtape together. He released his first mixtape You Know What It Is Vol. 1 in 2002, and landed a record deal with the independent label Get Low Recordz owned by JT the Bigga Figga.

Game has many tattoos on his body. He has deceased Rapper Eazy-E on his right forearm and has a graveyard under it in which the headstones say 2Pac, Jam Master Jay & Eazy-E. Under his left eye he has a teardrop and behind his left ear has a tattoo that says "HCT 630 03", which is a reference to his son Harlem Caron Taylor who was born on June 30, 2003.

The Game also ventured into acting. In 2004, he had a minor role voicing the character "B-Dup" in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. He also voiced a character in the video game Def Jam: Icon. In 2006, he made his film debut in Waist Deep as a character named "Big Meat" and is currently filming two more movies.

On October 28, 2005, Game was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in Greensboro, North Carolina. At one point, police said his companions were pepper sprayed when they surrounded officers in a threatening manner. Mall security officers said the Rapper was wearing a full-face Halloween mask, filming shoppers, cursed loudly, and refused to leave when asked. Game continued to act up and was arrested, a police statement said. Game claimed that officers overreacted and that he did nothing wrong when he was pepper-sprayed by the mall security. The five officers involved in the incident ended up suing Game for defamation. The officers were awarded $5 million in compensatory damages, which was upheld on appeal by the North Carolina Court of Appeals in February 2012.

In October 2006, Game extended a peace treaty to 50 Cent, which was not immediately replied to. However, a couple days later on Power 106, he stated that the treaty was only offered for one day. On Game's album Doctor's Advocate, he says the feud is over on a few of the songs. The feud seemed to have gained steam after Tony Yayo allegedly slapped the fourteen-year-old son of Czar Entertainment CEO Jimmy Rosemond. Game responded with "Body Bags" on You Know What It Is Vol. 4. Since Young Buck was dismissed from G-Unit by 50 Cent, there have been interviews from both Game and Young Buck stating they never had a Problem with each other. In an interview Young Buck said he was aware of Game's support and that Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo did not reach out to him.

On May 11, 2007, Game was arrested at his home reportedly in connection with an incident at a basketball game in South Los Angeles in February 2007. He is alleged to have threatened a person with a gun. The arrest took place after his home was searched for three hours. Game was released early the next day after posting $50,000 bail. On January 9, 2008, a Los Angeles judge scheduled February 4 as the beginning date for Game's trial on assault and weapons charges. After pleading no contest to a felony weapons charge on February 11, Game was sentenced to 60 days in jail, 150 hours of community Service, and three years probation.

Game appeared on 106 & Park on May 16, where he confirmed LAX would be the last studio album he records. He had originally announced that Dr. Dre would be producing for the album, but neither Dr. Dre nor Aftermath Entertainment had confirmed. The album went head to head with heavy metal band Slipknot's All Hope Is Gone on the Billboard 200 albums chart, seeing that both albums were released on August 22, 2008, therefore both albums were competing for the number one spot on the Billboard 200. LAX ended up debuting at number two on the Billboard 200, at first, it looked like LAX had debuted ahead of All Hope Is Gone by 13 copies. Initially, Billboard published an article stating that The Game had secured the top spot with a margin of 13 units, in what was described as the "closest race for number one since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking Data in 1991". Slipknot's labels Warner Music Group and Roadrunner Records asked for a SoundScan recount, a historic first. Nielsen proceeded to the recount, which placed LAX at number two with 238,382 copies, and Slipknot in the first position with 239,516 copies scanned, a margin of 1,134 copies. After the recount 12 hours later, the article was rewritten and Slipknot was awarded the number one spot. LAX spawned four singles: "Game's Pain" with R&B singer Keyshia Cole, "Dope Boys" with Blink-182 Drummer Travis Barker, "My Life" with Rapper Lil Wayne and "Camera Phone" with R&B singer Ne-Yo. In the United States, the album has sold over 660,100 copies.

It was confirmed in May 2009, that Game began working on a new album, titled The R.E.D. Album On June 26, 2009 Game released a song titled "Better on the Other Side" a Michael Jackson tribute, the day after Jackson's death. It features Diddy, Mario Winans, Chris Brown, Usher & Boyz II Men. On October 3, 2009, Snoop Dogg posted a picture on his Twitter of himself, Dr. Dre and Game in the studio working together, The picture was taken a day earlier and it marked the first time Game had worked with Dr. Dre for some years since the beef with former fellow G-Unit labelmate 50 Cent caused him to release his two following albums on Geffen Records. Later in early January 2010 Game posted a twitpic of him wearing a lot of Aftermath chains with a caption saying "It's funny how things come Full Circle". Later he confirmed that he had returned to Aftermath Entertainment. He traveled to Prishtinë, Kosovo for a concert, that according to him would be the greatest of his life. In an interview there, Game stated: "I love Albanians, If I could be reborn, I'd be reborn Albanian". On June 3, 2011, Pitchfork Media announced that Game was working with Odd Future leader Tyler, The Creator on a track called "Martians vs. Goblins". Finally released on August 23, 2011, The R.E.D. Album reached number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 98,000 units.

On August 12, 2011, The Game decided to tweet his search for a supposed internship opening. In the message sent to his over 580,000 followers, he posted the number to call as the emergency line for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. The Game's fans jammed the line for hours. Initially, The Game denied any wrongdoing saying the tweet was "a mistake". The Game then posted a message saying the sheriff's department can "track a tweet down but you can't solve murders!" A Criminal investigation was launched stating that The Game could be charged for obstruction of justice. Despite all of this, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department issued this statement: "Based upon our investigation, as well as consultation with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, the LASD considers the Criminal investigation into this matter closed. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will not be seeking Criminal charges." The Game issued an apology on CNN saying, "My sincerest apologies to the Sheriff's Department, it was a joke gone wrong."

On July 8, 2012, 40 Glocc got into an altercation with The Game. In a video clip, allegedly shot by The Game via Game's iPhone during the fight, 40 Glocc is seen running into a bush after being beaten up by the fellow West Coast Rapper. Game defended what he did by saying he was retaliating for Glocc going up to Rappers Lil Wayne and Plies in the past with large entourages. In October 2012, 40 Glocc filed a lawsuit for $4.54 million for assault and battery, as well as damaging his reputation. This included $500,000 in pain and suffering; $500,000 in emotional distress; $750,000 in lost earnings; $2 million for punitive damages; $25,000 in medical expenses; and various other reasons. Since then, Glocc has gone on a smear campaign against The Game, releasing his diss "The Full Edit" in December 2012. Game has similarly addressed the situation in several interviews, claiming that filing a lawsuit of this nature "disintegrates your street cred". In December 2012, 40 Glocc assaulted Game's manager Dontay "Taydoe" Kidd in Las Vegas, Nevada. Glocc won the lawsuit and was awarded $3000.

Across his stomach he also has his hometown of "Compton" over his original "Stretch" tattoo and above that he has a tattoo of Barack Obama's face with his suit on. He also recently got the album covers of Dr. Dre's The Chronic and his major label debut album The Documentary tattooed on his lower stomach by Kat Von D. He also had plans to get portraits of Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X tattooed on him soon. On August 19, 2013, he got Trayvon Martin in his hoodie, and late Rapper Nate Dogg tattooed on separate parts of his legs.

On June 16, 2014, The Game released the compilation album, Blood Moon: Year of the Wolf's first single "Bigger than Me". The song heavily samples rock group Poliça's 2013 single "Warrior Lord". The following day, The Game announced that his sixth studio album, a sequel to his debut album The Documentary, would be arriving in January 2015, with Dr. Dre returning as Producer along with Just Blaze and Scott Storch. He also expressed interest in getting Nicki Minaj featured on the album. The second single from Year of the Wolf, titled "Or Nah" was released on July 1, 2014.

The Game and Skrillex collaborated on a song named "El Chapo", which was released on October 9, 2015.

In 2016, a judge ruled that The Game was liable for sexually assaulting She Got Game contestant Priscilla Rainey. He was sentenced in February 2017 to a 120-hour community Service and received a suspended prison sentence of six months for punching an off-duty police officer.