Having graduated from AIIMS in 1969, Chopra emigrated to the US in 1970 with his wife, Rita, to do his clinical internship at a New Jersey hospital, followed by residency training for several more years at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts and at the University of Virginia Hospital. He specialized in internal medicine. He is board-certified in internal medicine, endocrinology and metabolism. Dr. Chopra is licenced to practice medicine in the states of Massachusetts (since 1973) and California (since 2004), is a member of the American Medical Association (AMA), and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.Inspired after meeting New Delhi Ayurvedic physician Dr. Vaidya Brihaspati Dev Triguna, in 1981, Chopra became a spokesperson in the Transcendental Meditation movement. Later, Chopra branched off on his own to pursue broader aims in mind-body treatment including, in 1993, the position of executive director of the Sharp Institute for Human Potential and Mind–Body Medicine, affiliated with Sharp Healthcare, in San Diego.

Many of Chopra’s themes and beliefs are stated in his first book Creating Health, in 1986. He launched himself as a staunch advocate of the connection between mind and body, advocating meditation and self-awareness as primary factors in both illness and healing. He deepened these themes in Quantum Healing (1989), where he examined the mysterious phenomenon of spontaneous healing of cancer. In addition to the spontaneous healing of cancer, Chopra in his 2001 book Grow Younger, Live Longer makes reference to a "friend of ours who was diagnosed with AIDS fifteen years ago" made a miraculous turn around and now has undetectable level of the HIV antibodies in his blood. Here he introduced quantum physics as a means of understanding the mind-body connection, arguing—as he would in many other books—that consciousness is the basic foundation of nature and the universe.In his book Life After Death: The Burden of Proof (2006), he extends personal consciousness beyond the "artificial boundary that separates the living from the departed." Assessing the seven varieties of the afterlife described by various world religious traditions, Chopra offered the proposal that a person’s awareness in the present shapes existence after death; that is, the afterlife is created uniquely for each of us by our present level of consciousness.

Chopra taught at Tufts University and Boston University Schools of Medicine, and became the Chief of Staff at the New England Memorial Hospital (later the Boston Regional Medical Center) in Stoneham, Massachusetts. Chopra also established a large private practice. Chopra is the co-founder of the Chopra Center, which he founded in 1996 in La Jolla, California with Dr. David Simon. In 2002, the Center moved its official headquarters to La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California with a branch in New York City. He has plans for other centers. In 2004, Chopra was recruited to co-write a script with Indian film director Shekhar Kapur on a proposed film to be made about the life of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, but the plans were later dropped for unstated reasons.

Subsequent books have turned toward larger spiritual questions. In How to Know God (2000) and The Book of Secrets (2004), an argument is made for an all-pervasive intelligence that unites every living thing, rather than the traditional Western concept of God as a person, "a venerable white male sitting on a throne in the sky." Chopra sees God as a projection of human awareness, who becomes more expansive and universal as individual consciousness expands.

In 2005, Chopra became a staunch advocate for disarmament and international peace in Peace Is the Way, where he argues that a "critical mass" of people of like mind can defeat the global "addiction to war." In the same regard, he became president of a broad-based organization, Alliance of a New Humanity, that seeks to form "peace cells" around the world and to foster such related goals as environmental healing and sustainable economies in developing nations.In August 2005, Chopra posted a series of articles in the blog The Huffington Post, to which he is a frequent contributor, offering his solution to the creation-evolution controversy. In doing so he expressed support for Intelligent design without the Bible, or the politics of religion. According to Chopra, Nature itself displays intelligence.

Chopra also believes Jesus was possessed of esoteric wisdom and may have studied Kabbalah. In March 2008, Deepak and his daughter Mallika Chopra, did their first Christian radio interview with host Drew Marshall in which they discussed his book The Third Jesus. Through his over 50 books, his periodical PBS specials, his weekly Sirius-XM radio show, frequent appearances on Larry King Live, and extensive international speaking engagements, Dr. Chopra has become an increasingly recognizable face for progressive thought in alternative medicine and politics. At a state dinner in India in March of 2000, US President William Clinton said, "My country has been enriched by the contributions of more than a million Indian Americans, which includes Dr. Deepak Chopra, the pioneer of alternative medicine". The June 1999 issue of Time magazine identified Chopra as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century and credited him as "the poet-prophet of alternative medicine." At the Citation of the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic awarded by the Pio Manzu International Scientific Committee, Mikhail Gorbachev referred to Chopra as "A renowned physician and author, Deepak Chopra is undoubtedly one of the most lucid and inspired philosophers of our time."

In its May 22/29, 1991 issue, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an article coauthored by Chopra: Letter from New Delhi: Maharishi Ayur-Veda: Modern Insights Into Ancient Medicine. This article was represented as discussing traditional Indian medicine (Ayurveda). Upon investigation, JAMA editors found that the coauthors had financial interests in "Maharishi Vedic Medicine" products and services. In the 14 August 1991 edition of JAMA, the editors published a financial disclosure correction and followed up in October 2, 1991 with a six-page Medical News and Perspectives exposé. The series of events was reviewed by Skolnick in the Newsletter of the National Association of Science Writers. In response to the JAMA exposé, two Transcendental Meditation groups and Chopra sued the author, Andrew Skolnick, JAMA’s editor Dr. George Lundberg, and the AMA for $194 million in July 1992. Pursuant to a settlement agreement in 1993, the suit was dismissed by the judge at the request of the plaintiffs, with the option of reinstating pending completion of the settlement.

In 2008, following the November attacks in Mumbai, Chopra commented on the Larry King Live show that there is a wider historic context of terrorism. Solving terrorism is not simply a matter of killing the terrorists involved. He spoke of how that larger context of terrorism included the role of the US military policies in Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past thirty years. These policies include the Bush Administration’s War on Terror. Chopra also speculated that Muslim extremists were threatened by the election of US president Barack Obama. In danger of losing their primary ideological recruiting tool with the loss of a right wing administration, the terrorists may have staged their attack now in order to elicit a response that would garner maximum sympathy on the Muslim street.

Dr. Chopra suggested that the United States should look to the sources of money, arms and military training that comes from the West’s oil purchases and military support of Pakistan. He suggested a variation of the Marshall Plan for the Middle East to address the educational, economic and ideological issues of the Muslim world. Wall Street Journal columnist Dorothy Rabinowitz represented this position as blaming America for the Mumbai attacks, saying that Chopra is too quick to blame problems on America and that he fails to mention the "fanaticism and sheer mindless gullibility" that she believes to be the root cause of Islamic Fundamentalism. Dr. Chopra followed up this exhange with a short letter to the Wall Street Journal and then a lengthier letter published in Huffington Post to address the personal attacks of Ms. Rabinowitz. In that letter he discusses his family’s history as victims of Muslim extremists during the partition of India.Chopra has cast himself as a critic but not an enemy of conventional medicine. He teaches an annual update in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, where his younger brother, Sanjiv, is Professor of Medicine and Faculty Dean for Continuing Medical Education. Deepak Chopra has written more than 50 books. They range broadly across spiritual and health topics; including bestsellers on aging, the "Seven Spiritual Laws of Success," the existence of God, arguments for the afterlife and world peace. He has also written novels and edited collections of spiritual poetry from India and Persia. Chopra is represented in the United States by Madison Avenue literary agent Robert Gottlieb of Trident Media Group. Gottlieb is best known as the agent that discovered Tom Clancy, and who now represents Dale Brown, James Wesley Rawles, Ralph Peters, Neale Donald Walsch and the estate of Isaac Asimov.

* 1987 Creating Health ISBN 0-395-75515-8
* 1988 Return of the Rishi ISBN 0-395-57420-X
* 1989 Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine ISBN 0-553-34869-8
* 1991 Unconditional Life: Mastering the Forces That Shape Personal Reality
* 1991 Perfect Health: The Complete Mind/Body Guide ISBN 0-517-58421-2
* 1993 Ageless Body, Timeless Mind : The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old ISBN 0-517-59257-6
* 1993 Creating Affluence: Wealth Consciousness in the Field of All Possibilities
* 1994 The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfilment of Your Dreams
* 1995 The Way of the Wizard: Twenty Spiritual Lessons in Creating the Life You Want ISBN 0-517-70434-X
* 1995 The Return of Merlin: A Novel ISBN 0-449-91074-1
* 1995 The Path to Love: Spiritual Strategies for Healing
* 1997 The Path to Love: Renewing the Power of Spirit in Your Life ISBN 0-517-70622-9
* 1997 The Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents: Guiding Your Children to Success and Fulfillment
* 1999 Everyday Immortality: A Concise Course in Spiritual Transformation ISBN 0-609-60484-8
* 1999 Lords of Light: A Novel ISBN 0-312-96892-2
* 2000 The Angel is Near: A Novel ISBN 0-312-97024-2
* 2000 How to Know God : The Soul’s Journey into the Mystery of Mysteries ISBN 0-609-60078-8
* 2001 The Deeper Wound: Recovering the Soul from Fear and Suffering, 100 Days of Healing
* 2001 Grow Younger, Live Longer: 10 Steps to Reverse Aging ISBN 0-609-60079-6
* 2002 Manifesting Good Luck Cards: Growth and Enlightenment
* 2003 Golf for Enlightenment: The Seven Lessons for the Game of Life
* 2003 The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire: Harnessing the Infinite Power of Coincidence ISBN 0-609-60042-7
* 2003 Synchrodestiny: Harnessing the Infinite Power of Coincidence to Create Miracles ISBN 1-84413-221-8
* 2003 Manifesting Good Luck: Love and Relationships, 50 Card Deck
* 2004 The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life ISBN 0-517-70624-5
* 2004 Fire in the Heart: A Spiritual Guide for Teens ISBN 0-689-86216-4
* 2005 Peace Is the Way : Bringing War and Violence to an End ISBN 0-307-23607-2
* 2005 The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga: A Practical Guide to Healing Body, Mind, and Spirit
* 2006 Ask The Kabala: Oracle Cards/Kabala Guidebook ISBN 978-1401910396
* 2006 Power Freedom and Grace: Living from the Source of Lasting Happiness ISBN 978-1-878424-81-5
* 2006 Life After Death: The Burden of Proof ISBN 0-307-34578-5
* 2006 Kama Sutra: Including the Seven Spiritual Laws of Love ISBN 978-1-852273-85-9
* 2007 Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment ISBN 978-0-06-087880-1
* 2008 The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore ISBN 978-0-307-33831-0
* 2008 Why Is God Laughing? The Path to Joy and Spiritual Optimism
* 2008 Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment ISBN 978-0061448737

* 1998 A Gift of Love: Love poems inspired by Rumi
* 2001 Soul of Healing Meditations - A Simple Approach to Growing Younger
* 2002 A Gift of Love II: A Musical Valentine to Tagore
* 2004 Chakra Balancing: Body, Mind, and Soul

* 1995 Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
* 1995 The Way of the Wizard
* 2003 God and Buddha - a dialog
* 2004 Soul of Healing - Body, Mind, and Soul Vol. 1