At the age of 17 Matthias Horbelt dropped out of school at the Hans Grüninger Gymnasium in Markgröningen. He founded the punk band Torso in which he acted as singer and guitarist. At the same time he completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter, which he completed with a journeyman's certificate. Later he completed his high school diploma at the Technical High School in Stuttgart.

Despite a single release ("Angst vor Morgen" 1992) and numerous concerts, he dissolved the band in 1993 due to a lack of artistic perspective and in the same year began acting studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Rostock, graduating with a diploma in 1997.

From the Schauspielhaus Kiel to the Landesbühne Hannover to the Städtebundtheater Hof he was engaged on numerous stages. He impersonated roles like Shakespeare's Othello, Cheech in "Bullets over Broadway" or the Duke of Alba in Schiller's "Don Carlos". From 2009 to 2018 he toured numerous times, among others with the piece "Finally free - the Nelson Mandela Story", which was nominated several times for the Inthega Prize. He also appeared in television films such as "Die Stimmen" and "Jahrestage" for Margarethe von Trotta, cinema films such as "Cypress" or "Deadline - das Film Musikill" and series such as "Ihr Auftrag, Pater Castell" or "SOKO 5113". From 2003 to 2004 he was the presenter of the "Morgenwelle" on the Munich radio station Radio 2Day. In 2005 he founded the film production company horbelt-film. Since then he has produced over 100 image films, short documentaries, short films and three web series. In addition to fictional content, he often deals with the topics of environmental protection and regenerative energies and worked here several times with the former world-class luge racer Georg Hackl.
He lives in Munich.