Okhlopkov studied fine arts and music before enrolling in the Meyerhold State Theatrical Workshops in Moscow (1922). An actor in the Meyerhold Theatre from 1923, he was director (1931–36) of the Realistic Theatre in Moscow (formerly the Moscow Art Theatre Studio). Drawing on the principles of Greek, Chinese, Japanese, and Shakespearean theatre, he designed an elaborate stage in the centre of the house and often placed the seated spectators inside the field of action. Although he produced chiefly political and proletarian dramas tailored to Soviet ideology, his experimentalism eventually led the government to close the Realistic Theatre (1938). From 1938 to 1943, Okhlopkov was a producer at the Vakhtangov Theatre and from 1943 to 1966 at the Moscow Drama (after 1954 called the Mayakovsky Theatre). He also produced and acted in a number of Soviet films.