[7][8][9] De Armas has one older brother, Javier, a US–based photographer[5][10] who, in 2020, was questioned by Cuban police due to his critical stance on Decree 349 and his links to artists under government surveillance.

[11] While de Armas grew up with food rationing, fuel shortages and electricity blackouts during Cuba's Special Period,[5][12] she has described her early life as happy.

[5][8] She left the four-year drama course shortly before presenting her final thesis because Cuban graduates are forbidden from leaving the country without first completing three years of mandatory service to the community.

[12] Cuban actor Jorge Perugorría suggested that the director consider de Armas for the role, after meeting her while attending a birthday party with his daughters.

[23] She then starred in the movie El edén perdido (2007) and had a supporting role in Fernando Pérez's Madrigal (2007), filmed at night without the permission of her drama school tutors.

[28] After spending a few months living in New York City to learn English,[22] de Armas was persuaded to return to Spain to star in seventeen episodes of the historical drama Hispania (2010–2011).

[30] During a long period without acting work,[20] de Armas participated in workshops at Tomaz Pandur's Madrid theatre company[5] and felt "very anxious" about the lack of momentum in her career.

[36][37] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter noted that while she was "appealing" in her part, de Armas was unable to demonstrate her "character's intense emotional demands.

"[38] De Armas had a supporting role in Todd Phillips's War Dogs (2016), acting opposite Miles Teller as the wife of an arms dealer, and again learned her lines phonetically.

She was contacted by director Jonathan Jakubowicz while still living in Madrid after watching her in El Internado[28] and asked her to travel to Los Angeles to audition for the Spanish-language part.

"[43] While the performance was initially discussed as a breakthrough role,[44][31] the film underperformed commercially, and de Armas spent much of the following year in her native Cuba, where she purchased a house.

She played a Dominican woman with congestive heart failure in the short film, funded by Montefiore Medical Center to raise awareness of organ donation.

[47] While de Armas's scenes opposite Himesh Patel in the 2019 romantic comedy Yesterday were included in the film's trailer, they were cut from the final product.

[48] De Armas's role as an immigrant nurse in the ensemble murder mystery film Knives Out (2019), written and directed by Rian Johnson, was widely praised and marked a breakthrough for the actress.

"[50] Tom Shone of The Times remarked, "The film's standout performance comes from its least well-known member, the Cuban de Armas, who manages the difficult task of making goodness interesting.

[58] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com said the film had "no idea" what to do with her "blinding charisma"[59] while Katie Rife of The AV Club remarked that it would be remembered, "if at all, as a movie de Armas was way too good for.

"[60] She starred opposite Wagner Moura in the Netflix biopic Sergio (2020) as Carolina Larriera, a U.N. official and the partner of diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello.

John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter found her "magnetic"[61] while Jessica Kiang of Variety said she imbued the part "with an intelligence and will that makes her more than just de Mello's romantic foil.

"[62] De Armas reunited with Moura to play the wife of one of the Cuban Five in Olivier Assayas's Netflix spy thriller Wasp Network.

De Armas portrayed Marilyn Monroe (as Norma Jean) in the Netflix biopic Blonde (2022), based on the biographical fiction novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates.

[94][95] After meeting on the set of Deep Water in late 2019, de Armas dated American actor Ben Affleck from March 2020 to January 2021.