Sergei Ovchinnikov was born on November 10, 1970 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR as Sergey Ivanovich Ovchinnikov. He was a goalkeeper for Russian soccer teams for over 17 years, beginning in 1990, just before the fall of the Soviet Union, through 2007. He is most known as having played for the Lokomotiv team for over 10 years. After retiring in 2008, he became a goalkeeping coach, and, in 2014, became an assistant manager of CSKA Moscow.