After playing youth football for FC Bibo in his hometown of Yamoussoukro, he made his professional debut in 2005 with Belgian First Division A club Anderlecht.

Born in Yamoussoukro, Tioté started out playing barefoot street football at the age of 10, not owning a pair of boots until he was 15.

[5] After spending months at the club's reserve, he made his debut for Anderlecht in a Belgian Cup match which they lost to Geel after Tioté missed his penalty.

[22] Tioté made his competitive debut for the club on 13 August 2008, in a UEFA Champions League qualification round, in a 2–0 loss against Arsenal.

[23] Weeks later, on 30 August 2008, he made his league debut, making his first start, in a 1–1 draw against Roda JC in the opening game of the season.

[27] After staying at the club throughout the summer, Tioté continued to be a first team regular and was sent-off on 20 September 2009, in a 3–2 win over Utrecht after a second bookable offence.

During his two years time at Twente, he gained his reputation for being a determined and resilient midfielder with a keen eye for a pass, making fifty-eight league appearances scoring one goal with fourteen assists.

On 26 August 2010, Tioté joined English Premier League side Newcastle United for a fee of £3.5 million, after he was granted a work permit.

[42] On 5 February, Tioté scored his first and what was to be his only goal for the club, a 25-yard volley for the late equaliser in a 4–4 draw against Arsenal after Newcastle had trailed 4–0 at half time.

[48][49] However, during a 1–0 win over Wigan Athletic on 22 October, he suffered a broken nose and knee injury that resulted him out for two months.

[51] After the end of the African Cup of Nations, Tioté returned to the first team, where he set up one of the goals, in a 2–2 draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers on 25 February 2012.

[53] In a 1–0 win against Queens Park Rangers on 22 December, Tioté received a yellow card, picking up his fifth booking of the season and resulting in him being suspended for one match.

In the 2013–14 season, Tioté captained Newcastle for the first time, replacing Fabricio Coloccini and Yohan Cabaye, both ruled out by injury, and performed well in a 2–2 draw on 19 October 2013.

[61][62] Later that month, Cabaye left the club to join Paris Saint-Germain, thus disrupting the successful partnership between the two men.

A hamstring injury meant that Tioté started the following season later than his teammates; it would be in September that he finally made his first appearance, against Hull City, in which he set up one of the goals, in a 2–2 draw.

On 6 February 2016, against West Bromwich Albion, Tioté had another goal disallowed in similar circumstances to the one two years earlier.

Benítez decided to keep him on as a squad player, and he fell further down the pecking order with Jonjo Shelvey, Jack Colback and Isaac Hayden all starting ahead of him.

[72] He made three more appearances for the club – once in the league, in a 1–1 draw with Aston Villa,[73] and twice in the FA Cup, in both third round ties against Birmingham City.

[74][75] On 9 February 2017, Tioté joined China League One side Beijing Enterprises Group for an undisclosed fee.

[83][84] Tioté also started each of the Ivory Coast's 2010 FIFA World Cup matches in South Africa, but the team did not advance to the second round.

[88] However, he was in the starting line-up for the Ivory Coast's opening two group matches and both the semi-final and final, in which he scored the team's first kick in the penalty shootout defeat to Zambia.

[90] At the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, Tioté scored his first international goal in the 50th minute of their 2–1 quarter-final loss to Nigeria.

[102][103] In 2012, after Newcastle United announced their sponsorship deal with Wonga, Tioté, alongside his teammates Papiss Cissé, Hatem Ben Arfa and Demba Ba, initially refused to wear the new sponsor's name on their shirts.

[108] On 29 September 2014, it was reported by the Evening Chronicle that Tioté had married a second wife, Laeticia Doukrou, in the capital of the Ivory Coast, Abidjan.

[120] He was given a military funeral in Abidjan on 18 June, attended by his national teammates and politicians including prime minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly.