He studied English and history at the University of New South Wales, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma of Education.

His first three books, The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, and When Dogs Cry, released between 1999 and 2001, were all published internationally.

In 2014, Zusak delivered a talk called "The Failurist" at TEDxSydney at the Sydney Opera House.

[7] In 2006, Zusak received The Sydney Morning Herald's Young Australian Novelist of the Year Award.

In 2014, he won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association (ALA), which annually recognises an author and "a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature".