[1] Born in 1983, Christian grew up in the town of Narrandera in the Riverina region of New South Wales and is of British, Irish Catholic and Australian Indigenous Wiradjuri ancestry.

After he was not offered a new contract for the 2007–08 season, he moved to South Australia where he soon found himself playing first-class cricket for the state team.

[5] ESPNcricinfo noted that "With the bat Christian can be brutal, particularly when aiming at Adelaide's square boundaries, and he is one of those rare strikers whose eyes don't need a warm-up ball.

[9][10] In 2015, Christian signed for his 4th English County, Nottinghamshire in a spell that would bring both him and the club great success in the t20 Blast competition.

[23] In February 2021, Christian was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL auction ahead of the 2021 Indian Premier League.

[26] Later the same month, Christian was named as one of three players as injury cover in Australia's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

[27] In early January 2025, Christian came out of retirement to join the Sydney Thunder for the rest of the 2024–25 Big Bash League season.

He had been serving as Thunder's assistant coach over the previous two seasons and answered a late call-up to bolster the team amid a mounting injury toll.