Michael Andrews was born in Norwich, Norfolk. He took Saturday classes in oil painting, before being accepted for the Slade School of Fine Art in 1947, just as William Coldstream had been appointed Professor.
Andrews went on to teach at Chelsea School of Art and at the Slade School of Fine Art, both in London, but by his own admission never liked it. He had his first solo exhibition at the Beaux-Arts Gallery in 1958, and a major retrospective was held at Tate Britain in 2001.