He was born in the first half of the 13th century, possibly in Champagne (he describes conflicts in Troyes in 1249); he was evidently of humble birth, and was a Parisian by education and residence.
Paulin Paris thought that he began life in the lowest rank of the minstrel profession as a jongleur (juggler and musician).
The piece that is most obviously intended for popular recitation is the Dû de L'Herberie ("Debt of the Herb Garden"), a dramatic monologue in prose and verse supposed to be delivered by a quack doctor.
The adventures of Frere Denyse le cordelier (Brother Dennis of the Order of the Cordeliers—Franciscans, who wore a rope belt, were nicknamed Cordeliers in France), and of "la dame qui alla trois fois autour du moutier" ("the lady who went around the monastery three times") find a place in the Cent Nouvelles nouvelles ("One Hundred Short Stories").
His chief topics are the iniquities of the friars, and the defence of the secular clergy of the University of Paris against their encroachments.
He delivered a series of eloquent and insistent poems (1262, 1263, 1268, 1274) exhorting princes and people to take part in the Crusades.
He was a champion of the University of Paris in its quarrel with the religious orders who were supported by Pope Alexander IV.
The libels, indecent songs and rhymes condemned by the Pope to be burnt together with the Perils des derniers temps attributed to Saint-Amour, were probably the work of Rutebeuf.
The satire of Renart le Bestourné, which borrows from the Reynard cycle little but the names under which the characters are disguised, was directed, according to Paulin Paris, against Philip the Bold.