[1] Born as Arun Kumar and being the only son of veteran actor Vijayakumar, he debuted in Sundar C's Murai Mappillai (1995).

[3] After a string of failures, he changed his name to Arun Vijay [4] and achieved breakthrough success and recognition for playing lead roles in Malai Malai (2009), Maanja Velu (2010), Thadaiyara Thaakka (2012), Kuttram 23 (2017), Chekka Chivantha Vaanam (2018), Thadam (2019), Mafia: Chapter 1 (2020) and Yaanai (2022).

[6] Vijay signed on for an A. R. Rahman musical Love Story to be his acting debut, but the delay of that project meant that he accepted Anbalaya Films' offer of Sundar C's Murai Mappillai (1995).

In 1998, Vijay played the lead role in director Balasekaran's film Thulli Thirintha Kaalam.

[7] His career hit a nadir when Buddhan, a project which he had physically transformed for, was stalled and dropped in 2000.

Arun Vijay appeared in Magizh Thirumeni's action-thriller Thadaiyara Thaakka (2012), marking a move away from his previous two Masala films.

[16] On September 1, 2015, Vijay launched his own production company called In Cinemas Entertainment (ICE).

[21] His next movie was Chekka Chivantha Vaanam (2018), which was directed by Mani Ratnam with an ensemble cast.

[23] In the action thriller film Saaho, Prabhas was the hero while Vijay played a supporting role.

[24] In 2020, he appeared in action crime thriller Mafia: Chapter 1 that was directed by Karthick Naren.

In the film, Arun Vijay played a narcotics police officer on a mission to hunt down a drug mafia kingpin.

[26] The next was released a Web Series Tamil Rockerz [27] and later Sinam an investigative whodunit thriller in which Arun Vijay plays a cop.