Osborne was educated at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge,[1] and at Harvard University, and has since led a nomadic life, residing for years in Poland,[2] France, Italy, Morocco, the United States, Mexico, Thailand, and Istanbul.

Osborne has been published widely as a long-form journalist in the United States, most notably in The New York Times Magazine,[3] The New Yorker,[4] Gourmet, Salon, Playboy, and Condé Nast Traveler.

[5] He has also been an occasional Op-Ed columnist at Forbes.com and is a frequent contributor to Newsweek International, The Daily Beast, and The Wall Street Journal Magazine.

His feature for Playboy, "Getting a Drink in Islamabad", won a 2011 Thomas Lowell Award for Travel Journalism.

[17] Paul French in the Los Angeles Review of Books wrote that "Osborne's novel is the best on contemporary China since Malraux's.

[34] A novel On Java Road, set in Hong Kong, appeared with Random House in August 2022 to enthusiastic reviews on both sides of the Atlantic.

[35] The screen version of The Forgiven was announced at Cannes in 2018 with director John Michael McDonagh and Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain and Matt Smith attached.

Directed by Edward Berger ( "All Quiet on the Western Front" ) and starring Colin Farrell, Tilda Swinton, Anthony Wong and Fala Chen.

In June 2020 it was announced by both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter that Osborne will script and co-produce the film adaptation of Jon Swain's 1997 Vietnam war memoir River of Time in conjunction with Indochina Productions.