Born in Upperchurch, County Tipperary, Ryan first arrived on the inter-county scene as a dual player at the age of seventeen, before later joining the under-21 teams in both codes.
As a member of the Munster inter-provincial team on a number of occasions, Ryan won two Railway Cup medals.
He served as a selector under Liam Sheedy on the Tipperary senior team between 2008 and 2010, before later being appointed assistant manager under Eamon O'Shea.
After losing out to Cork in the provincial football championship, he later collected a Munster medal with the hurlers following a 2–11 to 1–9 defeat of the same opposition.
Ryan made his senior championship debut for Tipperary on 9 June 1991 when he came on as a substitute in a 2–18 to 0–10 Munster semi-final defeat of Limerick.
The opening thirty-five minutes saw both sides trade score-for-score, however, a controversial 20-metre free, miss-hit by Michael Cleary, landed in the net and gave Tipperary a lead which they never surrendered.
Tipperary went into decline following this and suffered a number of championship defeats, however, the introduction of the new "back-door system" saw Ryan's side reach the All-Ireland final again in 1997.
Clare were well on top for much of the game, however, Liam Cahill and Eugene O'Neill scored twice for Tipperary in the last ten minutes.
John Leahy missed a goal chance in the last minute while another Tipp point was controversially ruled wide.
In November 2015, it was confirmed that Ryan will be assisted by former Tipperary player's John Madden as a selector and Declan Fanning as a coach.
[15] On 14 August 2016, Tipperary qualified for the 2016 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final after a 2-19 to 2-18 victory over Galway in the semi-final at Croke Park.
[25] On 2 August 2018, Ryan along with his management team stepped down after a disappointing year which saw Tipperary eliminated early from the championship.