Christian Madsen was born in 1990 in Los Angeles to actors Michael Madsenand Jeannine Bisignano. He began acting at the age of ten, when he appeared in a small role in one of his father's films, and spent time on the set of a number of other films, including Free Willy and The Getaway. His grandmother, filmmaker Elaine Madsen, encouraged him to pursue a career in acting after watching his performances in high school theater. His parents divorced when he was a child and he subsequently "bounced around a lot" between his parents' homes in Malibu, the San Fernando Valley, Santa Fe, and Montana. He eventually moved in with his grandmother when he was 17, and she took him to the Actors Studio and introduced him to the head of its Hollywood branch, Martin Landau. Madsen's early film career consisted mainly of small roles with his father and independent films. He took on other jobs while continuing to audition for acting roles. He had been auditioning without any successes for over two years and was about to be evicted from his Los Angeles apartment when he won a role in Divergent, a film adaptation of Veronica Roth's young adult novel of the same name. After filming Divergent, Madsen was cast in the lead role of the upcoming independent film Prism, in which he plays a young man who is reunited with his amnesiac father after 15 years. In 2014, he also appeared in Palo Alto, a drama film directed by Gia Coppola, and he has been cast in Jack Squared.

克里斯蒂安·马德森 （Christian Madsen） 于 1990 年出生于洛杉矶，父亲是演员迈克尔·马德森 （Michael Madsen） 和珍妮·比西尼亚诺 （Jeannine Bisignano）。他十岁开始演戏，当时他在父亲的一部电影中扮演了一个小角色，并在其他一些电影的片场度过了一段时间，包括《自由威利》和《逍遥游》。他的祖母、电影制片人伊莱恩·马德森（Elaine Madsen）在观看了他在高中剧院的表演后，鼓励他从事演艺事业。他的父母在他还是个孩子的时候就离婚了，随后他在马里布、圣费尔南多谷、圣达菲和蒙大拿州的父母家中“蹦蹦跳跳”。他最终在17岁时搬到了祖母家，祖母带他去了演员工作室，并把他介绍给了好莱坞分公司的负责人马丁·兰道。马德森早期的电影生涯主要包括与父亲的小角色和独立电影。他一边从事其他工作，一边继续试镜表演角色。两年多来，他一直在试镜，但没有任何成功，当他在《分歧者》中赢得一个角色时，他即将被赶出他在洛杉矶的公寓，这是一部改编自维罗妮卡·罗斯（Veronica Roth）同名年轻成人小说的电影。在拍摄完《分歧者》后，马德森被选为即将上映的独立电影《棱镜》的主角，他在片中饰演一个在15年后与失忆的父亲团聚的年轻人。2014年，他还出演了由吉亚·科波拉执导的剧情片《帕洛阿尔托》，并出演了《杰克·平方》。