He played for Wigan in the Championship and Super League between 1983 and 1997, and also had spells with Balmain Tigers, London Broncos (twice) and Bradford Bulls.

His father, Jackie Edwards, played for Warrington from 1955 to 1964, as stand-off, or scrum-half, until a severe spinal injury ended his career prematurely at age 24.

[8] His uncle Bobby Edwards played one match for Warrington in the halves against New Zealand at Wilderspool Stadium on Saturday 23 September 1961.

Edwards signed for Wigan in a blaze of media coverage on his seventeenth birthday; for a fee of £35,000,[10] the largest in history for a schoolboy player.

In the 1984–85 season Wigan reached the 1985 Challenge Cup Final and Edwards played at fullback, scoring a try in his side's victory.

Edwards played for Sydney club the Balmain Tigers when they reached the 1989 NSWRL season's grand final, for which he was selected on the interchange bench.

During the 1992–93 season Edwards played at scrum half for defending RFL champions Wigan in the 1992 World Club Challenge against the visiting Brisbane Broncos.

He fell out with new coach Eric Hughes, who refused Edwards permission to miss the first training session of each week, in order for him to spend time with his son in London.

His political views meant that on a Great Britain Lions tour, Edwards taped over the British Coal logo on his jersey in support of the miners' strike.

Edwards was England's captain for the 1995 World Cup tournament, but ruled himself out of the final against Australia with an infected knee.

On 8 August 2018 it was announced that Edwards would return to rugby league to coach his former club Wigan Warriors in 2020, after completing his commitments with Wales.

[20] His decision not to take the role at the Warriors was not popular with fans, and Edwards himself acknowledged it had affected his legacy at the club.

Edwards had a long-term relationship with M People singer Heather Small, with whom he has a son, Labour Party councillor and London Assembly member James Small-Edwards.

When offered the job of coaching the Great Britain rugby league team he turned it down because it would mean being in the north a lot of the time, away from his family.