Schneider was born in Mount Kisco, New York. He stands 6' 4" tall, and graduated from North Springs High School in Atlanta, Georgia. His father is from upstate New York and his mother is from Sanford, Florida.

More recently John Schneider can be seen on several episodes of the FX Network show Nip/Tuck as Ram Peters, the CEO of an adult film company. Also, from February to March 2008, he performed as Billy Flynn in the Musical Chicago on Broadway. Schneider is also known to television audiences as Jonathan Kent, the adoptive father of Clark Kent on the hit show Smallville, starring in 100 episodes before his character was killed off. Schneider also directed episodes of Smallville, including S3E20 and Talisman, which received a respectable 8.8 rating out of 10 on TV.com. Some Smallville episodes contain references to Schneider's other work in The Dukes of Hazzard. Schneider also guest starred for the latter half of Smallville: Season 5 appearing in the episodes 'Void' and 'Oracle'

Schneider has appeared in many films and TV series such as the miniseries 10.5. He had a recurring role on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and guest-starred on such shows as Diagnosis Murder, Touched by an Angel, JAG and Walker, Texas Ranger. He also appeared in the off-Broadway play The Civil War as a Confederate soldier.

Schneider has also been mentioned in other media such as South Park's episode 505 Terrence and Phillip: Behind the Blow, saying that their made for TV episode was shown instead of the very popular "John Schneider Variety Hour", an obvious joke of it being put on instead of South Park.

In 2007, he was among a series of celebrities involved in television ads for the Zaxby's restaurant chain.

In 2008, Schneider made an appearance on the series CSI:Miami in an episode titled "Tunnel Vision." He played the bad guy role.