Victor Ashe graduated from the UT College of Law in 1974. He served as an intern in the office of Tennessee Representative Bill Brock (1965) and was a staff assistant to then-Senator Howard H. Baker in 1967. He served in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1968 to 1974. He ran for the Tennessee Senate in 1974, but a judge ruled that his run was illegal because he would not turn 30 until after the election. His mother (Martha Henderson Ashe) ran instead, was elected, resigned the next day, and Victor was appointed to serve as senator. He served as senator from 1975 to 1984.
Ashe was elected mayor of Knoxville and served from 1988 to 2003, until term limits (a vote he strongly opposed) precluded his running for an additional term. He served as the president of the US Conference of Mayors in 1995.
He served as the executive director of the Americans Outdoors Commission in 1985 to 1987. President Bush appointed him to the board of directors of Fannie Mae, where he served from 2001 to 2004. He was nominated by President George W. Bush, his college roommate and fellow member of the Yale cheerleading squad, to serve as ambassador to Poland in April 2004. He was confirmed for the post by the Senate in May 2004 and served until 2009.
He was appointed to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an independent agency of the United States government responsible for all nonmilitary, international broadcasting sponsored by the US government, and served from June 30, 2010, until August 1, 2013. He also served on the board of directors of AmeriCorps, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association, and the American Rivers Association. He was the recipient of the Cornelius Amory Pugsley Medal for Park and Recreation Administration.
A 1967 Yale graduate, he is a member of Skull and Bones. He is also a member of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco. He served in the US Marine Corps Air Reserves from 1967 to 1973.