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 Frederick Lewis Norden was born on October 22, 1708, in Glückstadt, Holstein, the son of George Norden, a Danish lieutenant-colonel of artillery, and Catharine Henrichsen of Rendsburg. Initially trained for a maritime career, he entered the Danish Corps of Cadets in 1722, studying mathematics, shipbuilding, and drawing. His proficiency in drawing gained him recognition from De Lerche, the grand master of ceremonies, who employed Norden to restore charts and plans for Christian VI, king of Denmark. In 1732, Christian VI appointed him as second lieutenant and provided financial support for him to study shipbuilding abroad, focusing on Mediterranean rowing vessels.

Norden first traveled to Holland, where he studied engraving under John De Ryter. By 1734, he relocated to Marseilles and later to Livorno, where he created models of rowing vessels that were later stored in the Chamber of Models at the Old Holm in Copenhagen. He spent nearly three years in Italy, studying art and joining the Academy of Drawing in Florence. In Florence, he became acquainted with Baron de Stosch, a collector of Egyptian antiquities, and corresponded with him about these subjects.

In 1737, Christian VI directed Norden to undertake an exploratory journey to Egypt. Norden arrived in Alexandria in June 1737 and traveled through Cairo, Girgeh, and Aswan, eventually reaching Derr but being unable to proceed beyond the second cataract of the Nile. Illness and language barriers complicated his expedition. During the journey, he kept journals and created drawings and plans. In 1741, Norden published Drawings of some Ruins and Colossal Statues at Thebes in Egypt, with an Account of the same in a Letter to the Royal Society in London.

Following his death, Norden's Egyptian manuscripts were translated into French by Des Roches de Parthenay and published in 1755 as Voyage d'Égypte et de Nubie, a two-volume work with 159 plates. This work was later translated into English by Peter Templeman in 1757 under the title Travels in Egypt and Nubia, and into German by Steffens in 1779. A French edition was reprinted in Paris from 1795 to 1798. A Compendium of his travels was published in Dublin in 1757. Another posthumous work, The Antiquities, Natural History, Ruins ... of Egypt, Nubia, and Thebes, exemplified in near two hundred Drawings, taken on the spot by F. L. Norden ... engraved by M. Teuscher, was published in London in 1792.

Norden returned to Denmark in 1738 and was promoted to captain in the Danish navy and appointed a member of the shipbuilding commission. In 1740, he traveled to London, where he was well received by the Prince of Wales, Martin Folkes, and other intellectuals. He became a founder of the Egyptian Club, composed of travelers to Egypt, and volunteered for an expedition under Sir John Norris. When the expedition was canceled, Norden  sailed under Sir Challoner Ogle and participated in the siege of Cartagena in April 1741. He began an illustrated account of this campaign, but it remained incomplete.

In 1742, Norden traveled to France but died in Paris on September 22, 1742, from consumption. His portrait appears in the second volume of Travels in Egypt and Nubia, accompanied by an engraved medal showing his likeness on the obverse and a pyramid on the reverse.