Cink was born in Huntsville, Alabama and grew up in Florence, where he attended Bradshaw High School. He completed high school in 1991 and he attended Georgia Tech in Atlanta, where he played golf for the Yellow Jackets; he turned professional in 1995. After winning the Mexican Open and three events on the Nike Tour (now the Nationwide Tour) in 1996, Cink joined the PGA Tour in 1997 and won the Canon Greater Hartford Open in his rookie season. Cink performed consistently on the Tour over the next few years, picking up another win at the 2000 MCI Classic. Until his victory in the Open Championship in 2009, 2004 was his career year to date, with a fifth-place finish on the money list and wins at the MCI Heritage and at the WGC-NEC Invitational, which is one of the World Golf Championships events and was the most prestigious win of his career at the time. In 2009 he won his first career major with a playoff victory over 59-year old Tom Watson in The Open Championship.