[2]: 39  After the death of his father in 1956, he left Dakar to study in France, where he obtained a diploma in physiotherapy.

[4][5] Sow was inspired by photographs by Leni Riefenstahl of the Nuba peoples of southern Sudan, and from 1984 began to work on a series of larger-than-life sculptures of muscular Nuba wrestlers.

[4][6] Sow had many international exhibitions, including at documenta IX in Kassel in 1992, at Palazzo Grassi in Venice during the Biennale of 1995, and on the Pont des Arts in Paris in 1999.

[4][6] In the 2008 Prince Claus Awards, on the theme of Culture and the human body, he was one of the eleven laureates.

[7] On 11 April 2012 Sow was elected a Membre Associé Etranger ("foreign associate member") of the Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Institut de France, replacing Andrew Wyeth.