His father, Troy Evans, played as a hooker for the Norths Devils and Redcliffe Dolphins in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership during the 1980s and 1990s.

[citation needed] At the beginning of 2008 Cherry-Evans was invited by Dennis Moore to trial with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and later signed a contract to play for their under-20s National Youth Competition team.

[6] Cherry-Evans played 46 games for the National Youth Competition team of Manly Warringah Sea Eagles over the 2008 and 2009 season where he scored 246 points in total including 24 tries.

At the conclusion of the 2009 Toyota Cup season, Cherry-Evans found himself behind Trent Hodkinson as Manly's first grade halfback after the departure of club captain Matt Orford.

[citation needed] With Hodkinson moving to play for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Cherry-Evans made his debut for Manly in Round 1 of the 2011 NRL season against the Melbourne Storm at halfback in the Sea Eagles 18–6 loss at AAMI Park.

[9] In round 13 against the Bulldogs, Cherry-Evans crossed the try line untouched from a scrum, performed a one-on-one strip on Dene Halatau, and had 3 try assists in a dominating display that saw him named as halfback in the BigPond Sport Team of the Week.

[11] Cherry-Evans won the 2011 Dally M Rookie of the Year award, and scored a try in Manly's victory over the New Zealand Warriors in the 2011 NRL grand final.

On the next play Cherry-Evans received the ball from halves partner Kieran Foran, threw two dummy-passes and scored next to the posts to give the Sea Eagles a match winning 12–2 lead after Lyon's conversion.

Cherry-Evans won the Clive Churchill man of the match medal in the Sea Eagles 26–18 Grand Final defeat by the Sydney Roosters.

[21] During the announcement, Cherry-Evans was quoted as saying: "I definitely left the door open for this speculation to continue because, to be honest, I was always curious to know what offer was going to be on the table from Manly".

[28] Cherry-Evans hit back at former critics by having a great 2017 season, leading the Sea Eagles to their first finals series since 2014, [29] where they were defeated in the first round by the Penrith Panthers.

Cherry-Evans was named Player of the Year by the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles at the end of the 2017 season, having played all 25 games, scoring 6 tries, and kicking 9 goals.

Even though Manly finished 15th at the end of the 2018 NRL season, He was a stand out and was selected for both of the test Matches between New Zealand national rugby league team and Mata maa Tonga where Daly scored a try in the 34–16 win at Mt Smart Stadium.

[33][34] In Round 19, Cherry-Evans kicked the winning field goal in golden point extra-time as Manly defeated Melbourne 11–10 at AAMI Park.

Cherry-Evans played in both finals matches as Manly reached the elimination semi-final against South Sydney but were defeated 34–26 ending their season.

[38] In round 5 of the 2021 NRL season, Cherry-Evans kicked a field goal for Manly-Warringah in the final seconds of the game to defeat the New Zealand Warriors 13–12.

[41] Cherry-Evans played 25 games for Manly in the 2021 NRL season including the club's preliminary final loss against South Sydney.

[48] In round 18, Cherry-Evans kicked the winning field goal in Manly's golden point extra-time victory over North Queensland.

An altercation on the training field in the lead-up to the side's 32–20 loss to The Gold Coast carried forward when the players attended a Gladstone strip club after the game and then flared up even further at the team hotel later in the night.

[51] Hastings left the club due to continued altercations with Cherry-Evans and subsequently played in the Super League and back in the NRL for the Wests Tigers.

In June 2018, former teammate Willie Mason claimed that when he was at Manly that nobody wanted to play alongside Cherry-Evans and that he was the reason there was such a divide at the club.

[55] Cherry-Evans' form in the early part of the 2014 NRL season saw him secure a position on Australia's interchange bench for the 2014 ANZAC Test in the Kangaroos 30–18 win over New Zealand at Sydney Football Stadium.

He made his State of Origin debut for Queensland as an interchange in Game II of the 2013 series in front of a home crowd at Suncorp Stadium.