Jorge Ben obtained his first  (Brazil's most popular type of tambourine) when he was thirteen, and two years later, was singing in a church choir. He also took part as a pandeiro player in the  of Carnaval, and from eighteen years of age, he began performing at parties and nightclubs with the guitar his mother gave him.

It was at one of those clubs in which he performed that his musical career took off. In 1963, Jorge came on stage and sang "" to a small crowd that happened to include an executive from the recording company, . One week later, Jorge Ben's first single was released.

The hybrid rhythms that Jorge employed brought him some problems at the start of his career, when Brazilian music was split between the rockier sounds of the  and traditional samba with its complex lyrics. But as that phase in Brazilian pop music history passed, and bossa nova became better known throughout the world, Jorge rose to prominence.

Jorge Ben's first public appearances were in small festivals organised by his friends, where bossa nova and rock and roll predominated. As with most musicians of the time, Jorge was initially influenced by  even though he was quite innovative in his own right. The aforementioned song, "Mas Que Nada", was his first big hit in Brazil, and remains to this day the most played song in the United States sung entirely in Portuguese.[] Outside of Brazil, the song is better known in cover versions by  and the. The song has also been reinterpreted by jazz luminaries such as , ,  and ; as well as other samba artists of the time, such as .

In 1969, Jorge Ben released his self-titled album amid the excitement of the cultural and musical movement. The album featured  as his backing band, who would go on to launch a successful career on the back of their association with Ben. The album was noted for "País Tropical," one of his most famous compositions, although it would be  who would take his recording of the song to the top of the charts in Brazil that same year. Instead, the song "Charles, Anjo 45", also from the self-titled album, would become Ben's biggest self-performed chart hit of the year.

In the 1970s, Jorge Ben released his most esoteric and experimental albums, most notably  in 1974 and  in 1975. In 1976, he released one of his most popular albums: "," a fusion of funk and samba which relied more on the electric guitar than previous efforts. This album also features a remake of his previously released song "Taj Mahal," from which 's 1977 hit " was plagiarized (a matter that was settled in court in Ben's favor).

In 1989, Jorge changed his recording label as well as his artistic name, becoming Jorge Benjor (or Jorge Ben Jor). At the time, it was said that there were numerological reasons for his change in name; other sources say it was in response to an incident where some of his royalties accidentally went to American guitarist .

In 2002, Jorge Ben contributed to the critically acclaimed , a compilation CD created by the  in tribute to the music and work of Nigerian musician, , that raised money for various charities devoted to raising AIDS awareness and fighting the disease. He collaborated with fellow hip-hop artists , , and  to remake the famous song by Fela Kuti, "Shuffering and Shmiling," for the CD.

In 2006, a remake of Ben's "Mas Que Nada" became an international chart hit for  with  after being used by  in a global TV advertisement during the ; this remake (the second time Mendes had covered the track) reached the Top 10 in several European countries, including the UK and Germany, in addition to reaching Number 1 in the Netherlands.

Jorge Ben is also a big fan of , a Brazilian football club, located in , which counts ,  and  among their former star players. Ben's interest in football carries over to his music, as many of his songs deal with the subject, such as "Flamengo," "Camisa 10 da Gávea," "Ponta De Lança Africano (Umbabarauma)," "Zagueiro," and "Filho Maravilha."

On 7 July 2007 he performed at the  of  in Rio de Janeiro.