A product of the Liverpool Academy, Coady captained the England Under-17 team that won the European Championship in 2010, beating a much-fancied Spanish side in the final in Liechtenstein. In the same calendar year of his international success, Coady moved up to the reserve team after captaining Liverpool’s Under-18's throughout the season and was able to help the club’s second string to a senior cup double in the summer of 2010. Coady's achievements were recognised when he was nominated for BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.
Coady has already proved to be a confident and assured performer as either a central defender or a holding midfielder. Apart from being a good footballer he also has terrific leadership qualities. Coady took the same path through the ranks at Liverpool as Jamie Carragher and didn't mind being compared to him: "I know Jamie Carragher did a similar thing by playing in midfield for the U18's and then moving into defence - if I can do half as well as he has done I'll be delighted." Coady was twice on Liverpool's bench in the 2010/11 season but it must have been disappointing for him not being involved at all in the following campaign despite taking active part in the pre-season tour, as Dalglish continued his rebuilding job at the club. Coady finally made his first-team debut under Brendan Rodgers in a 1-0 defeat to Anzhi Makhachkala in Russia on 8 November 2012. He only made four more match-day squads after that, making a very brief appearance as a late substitute in the win at Fulham in May. In the middle of June 2013 Coady was named as England's captain for the forthcoming under-20 World Cup to be held in Turkey.
Coady was not one of the senior players selected to travel to Indonesia for Liverpool's Far East tour on 16 July 2013. The reason became clear at the end of the same week when he agreed a six-month loan-deal with League One club Sheffield United. This loan was subsequently extended until 24 February 2014, the day before the player's twenty-first birthday. It was then further extended until the end of the 2013/14 season. Coady was a big success at Sheffield United, making 39 appearances in League One and scoring five times. He also played in eight FA Cup-ties (scoring once) as The Blades reached the semi-final stage of the competition, where they lost to Hull City. In the summer of 2014 Coady was transferred to Huddersfield Town in the Championship for a fee in the region of half a million pounds. The Yorkshire club then quadrupled their outlay the following summer when he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he enjoyed a sound season but the club finished in a disappointing fourteenth position. Coady continued to grow in stature at Wolves and in 2017/18 captained them to promotion to the Premiership. He was not overawed by the step up, playing every minute of Wolves campaign in 2018/19 in both the league and cups, 46 games in all as they qualified for the Europa League. Coady excelled in 2019/20 and his performance was rewarded with an international debut for England in the Nations League goalless draw against Denmark on 8 September 2020.
In 2020/21 and 2021/22 Coady remained remarkably consistent, missing just one game across the two seasons. However the arrival of Goncalo Guedes from Valencia suddenly meant he was no longer guaranteed first team football. By August 2022 Coady as in the last year of his contract and in light of his previous commitment to the club, was allowed to leave on loan to get regular football. A loan spell with Everton was agreed, where he was a regular until Sean Dyche replaced the sacked Frank Lampard as manager at the end of January 2023. After b barely featuring, Everton didn't take up the option to offer a longer term deal and in the close season he joined Leicester City, who had just been relegated to the Championship.