Schaad was born in Kaskelen, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, and grew up near Almaty, Kazakhstan, until he was eight years old.

After graduation he studied at the Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding in Munich from 2005 to 2009, and in 2009 at the State Institute for the Performing Arts in Saint Petersburg in Russia.

For the 2013/14 season he was voted Young Actor of the Year in the Theater Heute (Theatre Today) critics' poll.

[2][6][7] Schaad had roles in the TV series Killing Eve, Das Boot, and Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo.

From 2022 he played the lead male role of Sven Petzold in the Netflix series Kleo.