Bach was born in Cologne.[2] After school, he worked in theatres in Amsterdam, Brussels, London, New York, Utrecht, and Vienna.[3] In 1992, Bach was a member of the theatre group in Cologne at the Schauspielhaus and appeared on the German television channel RTL on the Dirk Bach Show.[3] He performed in Lukas (1996–2001) on the German TV channel ZDF, for which he received the Telestar award (1996), the German Comedy Award (1999), and the Goldene Kamera (2001).
In 2002, Bach starred in Der kleine Mönch on ZDF. He worked in Sesamstraße, the German version of Sesame Street, as the character Pepe. He often performed with Hella von Sinnen on different television productions. Starting 2004, Bach and Sonja Zietlow presented the German edition of the show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!. In 2005, he played the character Urmel in Urmel aus dem Eis (Impy's Island), In 2006, Bach was host of the German game show Frei Schnauze on RTL. In 2010, he appeared as Pastor Hinze on the soap opera Verbotene Liebe, in which he performed the first church wedding between two men ever dramatized on German television with characters Oliver Sabel and Christian Mann.[4][5]