Jon Avnet was born in 1949 Brooklyn to Robert Avnet, chair of the largest distributor of electronic equipment at the time (Avnet, Inc.), and Joan Bertha Avnet. He attended Great Neck North High School in Great Neck, New York.

Avnet came into show business by staging Off-Broadway theatrical productions. He later entered the film industry as a reader at United Artists and then took part in the director's program of the American Film Institute when his student film "Confusion's Corner" (featuring Richard Gere, then unknown) got him a fellowship. After he had worked as an associate producer, Avnet started Tisch/Avnet Productions in 1977 with Steve Tisch. They spent seven years producing many successful films (including "Risky Business" in 1983 which turned Tom Cruise into a star), several issue-oriented made-for-TV movies like "The Burning Bed" in 1984(NBC), starring Farrah Fawcett, and the much praised, but short-running series "Call to Glory" in 1984-85(ABC).

Avnet then wrote (with screenwriter Larry Grusin) and directed the TV-movie "Between Two Women" in 1986 (ABC) starring Farrah Fawcett (once again) and the late Colleen Dewhurst. Later that year, he began producing in partnership with Jordan Kerner, the former vice president of the dramatic programming component of ABC. Among their early pictures were "Less Than Zero" in 1987, based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis and "Men Don't Leave" in 1990, starring Jessica Lange as a widow. Avnet made his directorial debut in theaters with the surprise hit movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" in 1991. Avnet succeeded this triumph by producing many children-oriented movies for Disney: the very successful children's sports comedy "The Mighty Ducks" in 1992 and its two sequels (in [[1994 and 1996) and the 1993 reworked version of "The Three Musketeers" as well as the surprise 1997 hit "George of the Jungle". He aimed a little higher with "When a Man Loves a Woman" in 1994 starring Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia.

Avnet directed the film "The War" in 1994 with Elijah Wood in the lead and Kevin Costner in a supporting role as his father. On a roll, he followed up with the film "Up Close & Personal" in 1996, which was loosely based on the life of the late Jessica Savitch. It was written by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne and starred Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer. Avnet addressed political issues with his fourth film "Red Corner" in 1997, a movie about the Chinese legal system, starring Richard Gere and Bai Ling. Because of Gere's presence and support for Tibet and the Dalai Lama, they could not film in China and the settings had to be recreated in Southern California. Avnet, however, did film a few scenes in Beijing and also put in some footage of actual Chinese executions . In 2001, Jon Avnet created the made-for-TV war drama Uprising (2001) about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, starring Leelee Sobieski and Hank Azaria. Finally, in 2008, his movie 88 Minutes, starring Al Pacino, Alicia Witt, Leelee Sobieski, Benjamin McKenzie, and Deborah Kara Unger will be released in the United States.

He often works with Chris O'Donnell, Gary Basaraba, Afton Smith, Raynor Scheine, Farrah Fawcett, Leelee Sobieski and Kathy Bates.

Also, in 2007, Avnet became a judge on the reality TV show On the Lot.

He has three kids: Jacob (an actor, acted in Inspector Gadget and Fried Green Tomatoes as an extra ), Alexandra, and Lily.