Sevareid was a child of the American Plains. He was born in Velva, North Dakota. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1935.

Sevareid's first publication, the book Canoeing with the Cree, was the result of a canoe trip, underwritten by the Minneapolis Star, that he made with his friend Walter Port upon their graduation, in 1930, from high school in Minneapolis. After paddling up the Minnesota River and its tributary, the Little Minnesota River, to its source near Browns Valley, Minnesota, they portaged to the Red River of the North, taking that to Lake Winnipeg, then down God's River, Nelson River, and Hayes River to Hudson Bay, a trip of 2,250 miles. The book is still in print. He would write about the Plains influence on him in his early memoir "Not So Wild A Dream"(1946), which covers life in Velva, his family, the Hudson Bay trip, hitchhiking around the USA, mining in the Sierra Nevada, the Great Depression years, his early journalism and especially his experiences in World War II. This book is also in print.

Prior to joining CBS, Sevareid worked for the Minneapolis Journal and the Paris Herald Tribune (later name International Herald Tribune). During World War II, he broadcast the fall of Paris to the Germans, moving to London thereafter. In 1943, Sevareid was on board a plane that crashed in the jungles of southeast Asia. He helped to lead passengers and crew to safety.

After the war, Sevareid wrote for radio and television from Washington and he also presented documentaries. His "think-pieces"—really editorials and analysis—became a CBS Evening News staple until he retired in 1977. Those pieces made Sevareid a familiar face to millions of viewers around the world. Eric also portrayed himself in the movie, The Right Stuff. Eric Sevareid is a recipient of the state of North Dakota's Roughrider Award.

Eric Sevareid died of stomach cancer on July 9, 1992, aged 79.