Lee Yubi made her acting debut in the 2011 MBN sitcom Vampire Idol. In 2012, she played Song Joong-ki’s younger sister in the hit KBS2 melodrama Nice Guy, which scored her Best New Actress nominations at the KBS Drama Awards and the 49th Baeksang Arts Awards. In 2013, she joined the main cast of the MBC sageuk Gu Family Book, which won her Best New Actress at the 2nd APAN Star Awards. In 2014, she received the New Star Award at the SBS Drama Awards for her work in Pinocchio. In 2015, she appeared in the coming-of-age film Twenty, which earned her a Best New Actress nomination at the 36th Blue Dragon Film Awards. That same year, she was paired with Lee Jun-ki in the MBC supernatural sageuk Scholar Who Walks the Night, which gave her another Best New Actress citation at the MBC Drama Awards. In 2018, she starred alongside Lee Jun-hyuk and Jang Dong-yoon in the tvN medical drama You Who Forgot Poetry. In 2021, she became part of tvN’s Yumi’s Cells and then returned for its second season the following year.

Lee Yubi’s parents are actors Kyeon Mi-ri and Im Young-kyu. Her younger sister Lee Da-in is also an actress.