Formed in Portland, Oregon as a Worship band called Call Box in 2000, the group consisted of James Mead (guitar), Stu (bass), Kyle Mitchell (drums), Ryan Shrout (guitar), and Jon-Micah Sumrall (vocals). They changed their name to "Kutless" before releasing their first three track EP followed up by their full-length album in 2002 on BEC Recordings. Kutless chose their name because of a specific Bible verse. Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord". Because of this, the band says, "He took our cuts for us... leaving us 'Kutless'." Their first single was called "Your Touch". Their second single from their debut album, "Run", would go on to hold the record for the longest charting song in the history of the R&R Top 40 charts and be the most played song of the first 5 years on ChristianRock.net.

In 2004, after releasing their second full-length album, Sea of Faces, Kutless would go on their first headlining tour, X 2004. That same year, Kutless was slated to perform at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece, but could not make it due to the airline canceling their flight. In 2005, Kutless released their first worship album, Strong Tower. After recording Strong Tower, but before it was released, bassist Kyle Zeigler and drummer Kyle Mitchell left the band to form VERBATIM Records, a nationally distributed record label based in the Portland, Oregon area. They were replaced with bassist Dave Luetkenhoelter and drummer Jeffrey Gilbert, who both came from the recently broken-up Christian rock band Seven Places. Later in 2005, Kutless began recording their fourth full-length album. The album, Hearts of the Innocent, was released on March 21, 2006.

In May 2007, longtime Kutless guitarist Ryan Shrout decided to leave Kutless, after his daughter was diagnosed with a rare eye disease. Shrout chose to support his family during this time, and left Kutless to do so. Another guitarist named Nick De Partee has since taken the spot of Ryan, and has recently been a tech for the band before playing guitar for them.