Jo Yi-hyun made her acting debut in the 2017 web drama Sweet Revenge. In 2019, she joined the cast of the horror film Metamorphosis, which earned her a nomination for Best New Actress at the 25th Chunsa Film Art Awards. Following several minor roles in television, she played a more notable character in the first and second seasons of the hit tvN series Hospital Playlist from 2020 to 2021. In 2020, she also became part of the KBS2 series How to Buy a Friend. She then starred in the KBS2 drama School 2021, which scored her a Best New Actress nomination at the KBS Drama Awards. In 2022, she played one of the main characters in the Netflix zombie series All of Us Are Dead.

Jo Yi-hyun graduated from Hanlim Arts School and continued her studies at Kyung Hee University.