Kevin Wayne Jeter was born on March 26, 1950, in Los Angeles, CA. As a student at the University of California, Fullerton, Jeter became acquainted with Science Fiction authors James Blaylock, Tim Powers, and most notably, Philip K. Dick. Dick was a major influence on Jeter, who, like Dick, writes much about subjective interpretations of reality and whose work has similar themes of paranoia.

He published his first novel, Seeklight, in 1975. However, his first novel actually written (though unpublished until 1984) was Dr. Adder, which he wrote in 1972. The book takes place in a future proto-cyberpunk Los Angeles and is noted for its extremely violent and graphic sexual content.

Jeter's first major novel was Morlock Night (1979), a sequel to H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. In a 1987 letter to Locus, Jeter said of this novel and of similar works by Blaylock and Powers: "Personally, I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long as we can come up with a fitting collective term . . . like "steampunks", perhaps..." Jeter is thus credited with coining the term steampunk. He published two additional steampunk novels, Infernal Devices (1987) and the sequel Fiendish Schemes (2013).

Jeter has written nearly 30 novels, including three set in the Star Wars Expanded Universe and three authorized sequels to the 1982 film Blade Runner, as well as novels set in the Star Trek and Alien Nation universes. He has also written a number of short stories.