He was born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States. His father, Vic Verbinski, was of Polish descent and worked as a nuclear physicist at the Oak Ridge Lab. In 1967 the Verbinski family moved to Southern California, where a young Gregor grew up in the town of La Jolla. Gregor was the third of four children(Loraine, Diane, Gregor and Steven), his parents Vic and Larette were a constant prensence in their childrens lives. Gregor was an active Boyscout and surfed regularly. He went to Torrey Pines Elementary, Muirlands Junior High, and La Jolla High before attending UCLA Film School. His first band Thelonius included drummer Danny Hiefetz, he also played in the local allstar band The Sylon Boys Choir. Although most associate Verbinski with feature films, he started his career directing music videos for bands like Bad Religion and Monster Magnet working at Palomar Pictures. This was not surprising to his friends in LA, since he also played music for two obscure punk bands called The Little Kings, produced by famed underground tattoo artist Marc "Rude" Hoffman, and the Daredevils_(band), which included then-departed member of Bad Religion Brett Gurewitz.

Verbinski moved from music videos to commercials, where he worked for many brand names including Nike, Coca-Cola, Canon, Skittles and United Airlines.

One of his most famous commercials was for Budweiser, featuring frogs who croak the brand name. For his efforts in commercials, Verbinski won four Clio Awards and one Cannes advertising Silver Lion.

After completing a short film, The Ritual (which he both wrote and directed), Verbinski made his feature film directing debut with his comedy flick, Mouse Hunt. The film was a hit globally and he soon followed up the success with the action/comedy The Mexican, starring Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt. The film received mixed reviews, and performed modestly at the box-office, earning only $68 million domestically despite its star power (it was technically successful due to its moderately low $38 million budget). Verbinski followed it up with the Japanese horror film remake The Ring (2002), which struck gold globally, grossing well over $200 million worldwide. Verbinski also had a directorial hand in The Time Machine that year, temporarily taking over for an exhausted Simon Wells. Verbinski directed some of the underground Morlock sequences and is given a Thanks to credit in the film.

He then directed the majorly successful Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl which earned over $600 million at the international box office.

His next film was The Weather Man which starred Nicolas Cage. The film received mixed to positive reviews but was a box office failure.

In March 2005 he started filming the sequels Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The former then became his biggest success so far, becoming the third film ever to gross over $1 billion at the international box

Verbinski graduated with his BFA in Film from UCLA in 1987.