Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Larry Kutcher (an employee of General Mills) and Diane (who worked for Procter Gamble); his ancestry is mostly Irish American, as well as distantly Native American and Bohemian (the origin of his surname). Kutcher has an older sister, Tausha and a fraternal twin, Michael, who is younger by five minutes. He grew up on a farm in rural Iowa.

As a teen, Kutcher worked as a floor sweeper for a General Mills plant, and donated blood for money. He was expelled from Clear Creek-Amana, his high school, for underaged drinking, and arrested at age 18 for breaking into the school with a friend and stealing money from a vending machine. Kutcher majored in biochemical engineering and was a member of the Delta Chi fraternity at the University of Iowa. In 1997, he dropped out in order to pursue a modeling career, some of which involved working in underwear ads .

After some success in modeling, Kutcher had planned to move to Hollywood, but was asked to return to college by his mother. However, a month later, he was discovered in a bar in Iowa City, Iowa and cast in the television series , which became a success. Kutcher achieved some stardom and was cast in a series of film roles; although he auditioned but was not cast in the role of

In 2003, Kutcher used his status as a television star to produce and star in his own series on MTV, . The series involves various hidden camera tricks performed on celebrities; the series has sometimes led to controversy, as when New York Yankees' third-baseman Alex Rodriguez and actor Michael Vartan, both victims of the show's pranks, threatened to sue Kutcher. In order to avoid the lawsuits, the videotaping of Rodriguez's prank was destroyed without any release and Vartan's prank has not been aired.

Kutcher is also the producer of the reality-television show,

Kutcher has dated a variety of celebrities, including actresses January Jones (from 1998 to 2001), Ashley Scott (from 2001 to 2002), Monet Mazur (2002) and his co-star, Brittany Murphy, whom he dated from 2002 to 2003. Following his break-up with Murphy in mid 2003, Kutcher began dating actress Demi Moore, whom he married on September 24, 2005 in a lavish ceremony in Los Angeles, California.

Both Kutcher and Moore are fairly devout followers of Kabbalah, a mystical off-shoot of the Jewish religion. Kutcher has been reported to celebrate traditional Jewish holidays [1], take time off from filming [2] and was married in a Kabbalah ceremony by a rabbi.

Kutcher also owns an Italian restaurant in Los Angeles named