Andrew J. Robinson was born in New York City and attended the University of New Hampshire, later receiving his B.A. in English from the New School for Social Research in NYC. After graduation, he spent a year in England at the London Academy for Music and Dramatic Arts on a Fulbright Scholarship.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Robinson performed a wide variety of theater, movie and television roles. These included the infamous Scorpio killer in Dirty Harry, a stint on “Ryan's Hope” which earned him an Emmy nomination, and the title role in a TV movie Liberace. Other early roles includes episodes of “The incredible Hulk”, “The Amazing Spider-man”, and “Kojak”.

He was chosen for the continuing guest role of "Elim Garak", the Cardassian tailor/spy on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, after first reading for the part of Odo. He played Garak for 37 episodes. This led to his TV directing debut on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, and Robinson has since gone on to direct episodes of “Star Trek: Voyager”.

Robinson is also known for his appearances in several horror films. He played Larry Cotton, who met an untimely and gruesome end, in Hellraiser and Sergeant Botnick in Child’s Play 3.