[9] Harrison was also fascinated with physics and history, his favorite area of historical study being the Royal Navy from the late 1700s to the early 1800s.

[6][10] The Harrison family relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada, in April 1981 after the collapse of his parents' real estate business.

[11] In 1981 Harrison's father opened his first 300-square-foot secondhand store, the Gold & Silver Coin Shop, on Las Vegas Boulevard South.

[14] Harrison relates in his autobiography that he and his father had long-sought to convert the store into a pawn shop, calling it a "logical progression."

[16] By 2006, the shop had developed a reputation for carrying special sports items with unique histories,[17] including a 2001 New England Patriots Super Bowl ring that belonged to American football cornerback Brock Williams.

In 2008, Brent Montgomery and Colby Gaines of Leftfield Pictures came up with an idea about a reality show based in a Las Vegas pawn shop and approached Harrison.

[6] In a February 2009 YouTube video titled "Pawn star$", Corey Harrison promised to gun down an intruder with a handgun he displayed, and a woman screamed as she was removed from the store after demanding that the wedding ring her husband sold to the shop be returned.

[22] Nancy Dubuc of the History Channel changed the format, which included on-camera experts appraising the items brought into the Gold & Silver as well as personality dynamics of the store's staff and patrons.

[26] On June 7 2011, Harrison published a biography called License to Pawn: Deals, Steals, and My Life at the Gold & Silver.

[27] Harrison appeared as himself, alongside his son Corey and Chumlee, in "iLost My Head in Vegas", the November 3, 2012 episode of the American TV series iCarly.

[28] In January 2014, Harrison became spokesperson for the Micro Touch One Razor, a personal care shaving product for men.

In June 2014, History premiered United Stuff of America, a series from the producers of Pawn Stars that focuses on notable artifacts that were used in important moments in history, such as the cane with which Andrew Jackson fended off a presidential assassin, the axe Abraham Lincoln used as a young rail splitter, and the pencils Ulysses S. Grant used to write his memoirs.

[29][30] In July 2014, the game show Pawnography premiered on the History Channel, in which Harrison, Corey, and Chumlee compete against players in an attempt to prevent them from winning cash and items from the inventory of the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop.

[42][43] Harrison expressed an interest in running for U.S. Senate in 2024, telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal in March 2023, "I've been approached by many in the party and always listen with an open mind.