Tucker became involved in science fiction fandom in 1932, publishing a fanzine, The Planetoid. From 1938 to 2001, he published the fanzine Le Zombie, which lasted for more than 60 issues and later was revived as a webzine. (The title arising from the curious fact that on multiple occasions fallacious reports of his death were made within fandom.)

He also published the Bloomington News Letter, which dealt with news in the science fiction writing field. Active in letter-writing as well, Tucker was a popular fan during more than six decades, coining many words and phrases familiar in science fiction fandom and to literary criticism of the field. In addition to "Bob Tucker", he was also known to write under the pseudonym "Hoy Ping Pong" (generally reserved for humorous pieces.) During a 31-year period, 1955 to 1996, Tucker created and edited eight separate editions of The Neo-Fan's Guide To Science Fiction Fandom, an historical overview of the first five decades of science fiction fandom, with important events and trends in fandom noted. Each edition also carried a lexicon of fan terminology in use throughout fandom at the time. The eighth and final edition remains in print from the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society.

Tucker's fanzine writing has been described as "unfailingly incisive", and Tucker as "the most intelligent and articulate and sophisticated fan the American science-fiction community is ever likely to boast of". He helped pioneer criticism of the genre, coining along the way terms like "space opera" in common use today.

He was fan guest of honor, professional guest of honor, toastmaster, or master of ceremonies at so many science fiction conventions over nearly seven decades that no one has managed to compile a comprehensive list. Notable are his appearances as guest of honor at Torcon I (the 1948 Worldcon) and NyCon3 (the 1967 Worldcon), a perennial stint as toastmaster of the long-running Midwestcon, LibertyCon and as toastmaster at MidAmeriCon (the 1976 Worldcon).

In 1940, he served on the committee of the Worldcon in Chicago. In 2001, he co-hosted the joint Ditto/FanHistoriCon held in his hometown of Bloomington, Illinois.

Tucker won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1970 and the 1954 Retro-Hugo for same category in 2004. His Science Fiction Newsletter (a.k.a. Bloomington News Letter) won the Retro-Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 1951. Other honors included the First Fandom Hall of Fame Award and the E. E. Smith Memorial Award.

Tuckercon, the 2007 NASFiC (North American Science Fiction Convention) in Collinsville, Illinois, was dedicated to Tucker.

In 1941, Tucker published his first professional short story, "Interstellar Way Station." Between 1941 and 1979, he produced 25 science fiction short stories. He also turned his attention to writing novels, with 11 mystery novels and a dozen science fiction novels to his credit.

His most famous novel may be The Year of the Quiet Sun (1970), which won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and was nominated for the Nebula Award.

In 1996, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) made Tucker its second Author Emeritus. In 2003, Tucker was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, which was later renamed the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.

Other notable books include The Lincoln Hunters, in which time-travellers from an oppressive future society seek to record Abraham Lincoln's "lost speech" of May 19, 1856. It contains a vivid description of Lincoln and his time, seen through the eyes of a future American who feels that Lincoln and his time compare very favorably with the traveler's own.

The Long Loud Silence (1952) is a post-apocalypse story in which the eastern third of the United States is quarantined as the result of an atomic and bacteriological attack. Damon Knight called it "a phenomenally good book; in its own terms, it comes as near perfection as makes no difference."

Much of Tucker's short fiction was collected in The Best of Wilson Tucker (1982).

Tucker was noted for using the names of friends in his fiction, to the point where the literary term for doing so is tuckerization.

Selected bibliography

• The Dove (1948)
• The City in the Sea (1951)
• The Long Loud Silence (1952)
• Wild Talent (1954)
• The Lincoln Hunters (1958)
• The Year of the Quiet Sun (1970)
• This Witch (1971)
• Ice and Iron (1974)
• The Neo-Fan's Guide To Science Fiction Fandom (8 editions, 1955—1996)

Although Tucker sold more than 20 novels, he made his principal living as a movie projectionist and theater electrician, starting as a prop man at the Majestic Theater in Bloomington, Illinois. He served as President of Local 193 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes (IATSE).

Born in Deer Creek, Illinois, for most of his life Tucker made his home in Bloomington, Illinois. He was married twice. In 1937, he wed Mary Joesting; they had a son and a daughter before the marriage dissolved in 1942. His second marriage, to Fern Delores Brooks in 1953, lasted 52 years, until her death in 2006; they had three sons.