Kuyt missed five games over seven seasons from 1999 until 2006 and appeared in 179 consecutive matches between 2001 and 2006, striking up a partnership with fellow Feyenoord teammate Salomon Kalou.

Kuyt announced his retirement from football in 2017, having scored a hat-trick in the last game of the season to secure Feyenoord their first title since 1999 three days earlier.

He briefly came out of retirement the following April, to help out Quick Boys, where he already was the assistant-manager, to fix their shortage on strikers for the remainder of the season.

He broke into the first team in March 1998, playing the last six games of the season in the Hoofdklasse, and catching the eye of Eredivisie club Utrecht.

[8] Kuyt still regularly visits Katwijk and his old club Quick Boys, which benefited from a £300,000 windfall as a result of the player's move to Liverpool.

He later went on to score three in the 6–3 victory against ADO Den Haag and ended the season as the Eredivisie's top scorer with 29 goals, a career high.

In his third start for the club, Kuyt scored his first Liverpool goal in a Premier League fixture against Newcastle United at Anfield,[13] and followed up with another against Tottenham Hotspur in the next game.

Kuyt won much praise for his early performances, with the Daily Mirror writing, "The Dutch striker has the look of a cult hero in the making,"[14] and The People reporting that he is "propelling himself towards iconic status".

[15] One of the reasons for his early popularity was his post-match courtesy to the fans; after each match, he would walk to every corner of the ground and applaud the Liverpool supporters.

Starting in early 2008, Kuyt began to be employed as a right winger and set up two of Fernando Torres' goals against West Ham in March.

On 22 April 2008, in the first leg of the Champions League all-English semi-final against Chelsea at Anfield, Kuyt scored the opening goal just before half time.

Kuyt scored a late extra time goal against Standard Liège in the 2008–09 Champions League qualifying match to put Liverpool through to the group stages of the competition.

An injury to his shoulder during a Netherlands training session forced Kuyt out for a month, but returned a week earlier than expected, celebrating by scoring his second goal of the season against Sunderland at Anfield on 25 September in a 2–2 draw.

On 24 February, he headed in from a corner against Sparta Prague to put Liverpool through to the last 16 of the Europa League, winning 1–0 on the night at Anfield and 1–0 on aggregate.

[24] He did not score for the rest of 2011, missing a chance to get his 50th league goal for the club on 1 October 2011 with a saved penalty against Everton, a game Liverpool went on to win 2–0.

[25] On 28 January 2012, Kuyt scored the winning goal in the 88th minute of a 2–1 victory over Manchester United in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

When Marco van Basten took over as coach of the Dutch national team he dropped many established players, including strikers Roy Makaay and Patrick Kluivert.

He became a permanent fixture in the Dutch squad, making the starting line-up for 11 of the Netherlands' 12 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification matches.

With the team having already qualified for the next round, Van Basten decided to rest many of his first-choice players for the final group stage match against Argentina,[40] and Kuyt was handed a start in the right wing position.

For the Netherlands' round of 16 tie against Portugal, Kuyt was selected to start ahead of regular first-choice striker Ruud van Nistelrooy.

During Euro 2008, Kuyt was utilised as a winger, partnering Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart in the midfield due to the team's change of formation from 4–3–3/4–4–2 to 4–2–3–1.

During a friendly against England, he opened the scoring less than ten minutes after kick-off, pouncing on Rio Ferdinand's poor back pass.

[44] On 27 May 2010, the Netherlands manager Bert van Marwijk announced that the player would be part of the final squad of 23 participating in the competition.

[45] At the finals, Kuyt scored the Netherlands' second goal in the 85th minute of their 2–0 win over Denmark in its opening group match, slotting in the rebound after Eljero Elia's shot hit the post.

In the quarter-final match on 2 July against Brazil, Kuyt flicked a corner on to Wesley Sneijder, who headed the ball into the net to give the Dutch a 2–1 win.

Despite being an undisputed starter in the qualifying campaign, Kuyt lost his spot during Euro 2012, with Arjen Robben preferred on the right wing and Ibrahim Affelay on the left.

Kuyt won his 100th cap in the Netherlands' round of 16 victory over Mexico on 29 June 2014, making him only the seventh Dutch player to play 100 matches.

In the third place play-off, Kuyt made his last international appearance in a 3–0 victory over Brazil, playing the full 90 minutes in the right wing-back position.

"I want to be important to the Netherlands team, but the coach explained to me that he no longer has the role for me that I would prefer," Kuyt said on the Dutch FA website, knvb.de.

[54] On 28 December 2023, Kuyt was appointed as manager of Challenger Pro League (Belgian second division) club Beerschot, signing a contract until the end of the 2023–24 season.