Carl Cox grew up in Oldham, Lancashire, before attending Glastonbury High Boys secondary modern school on Glastonbury Road in Morden. Cox began his career as a hardcore and rave DJ in the mid 1980s. He was named the "Three Deck Wizard" after playing on three turntables simultaneously at the Second Summer of Love in 1988. He has performed at clubs such as The Eclipse, Edge, Shelly's, Sterns Nightclub, Heaven, Sir Henry's in Cork, Ireland and Angels and The Haçienda, as well as raves for Fantazia, Dreamscape, and Amnesia House. He now spearheads two record labels, Intec Records and 23rd Century Records.
He also ran Ultimate Base at the now defunct Velvet Underground on Charing Cross Road in the mid to late 1990s. Of his many DJ highlights, he also managed to cram in the Millenium (1999 to 2000) new year's eve twice by flying and cheating the timezones. He has had shows on Kiss FM and was a monthly live, global resident for BBC Radio One's Essential Mix in 1998–99, as well as over a decades worth of Ibiza live mixes broadcast from Club Space.
Cox was the first person to be named number one DJ in the world, on DJ Magazine 's Top 100 DJ poll, when he won in 1997