Preferred habitat includes mixed scrub woodland (it is one of the few large mammals that thrives in settled areas - in the scrub woodland and bush that reclaims abandoned fields and degraded pastures-), acacia, and mopane bush on lowlands, hills, and mountains. Recorded to 2,400 m in Ethiopia (Yalden et al. 1996). Kudu are browsers; they can exist for long periods without drinking, obtaining sufficient moisture from their food, but become water dependent at times when the vegetation is very dry (Owen-Smith 2013).

Historically, the Greater Kudu occurred over much of eastern and southern Africa, from Chad nearly to the Red Sea, south to the Eastern Cape, west to Namibia and north to mid-Angola. While it has disappeared from substantial areas, mainly in the north of its range, it generally persists in a greater part of its former range than other large antelope species, as a result of its secretiveness and its ability to survive in settled areas with sufficient cover. As in the past, it is much more sparsely distributed and less numerous in the northern parts of its range (from northern Tanzania northwards) than further south.

In Eritrea Greater Kudu were observed in Semenawi Bahari on the escarpment north of Asmara in 2014 (Mallon 2014). The species may now be extinct in Djibouti, where a few were reported to survive in the south on the Ethiopia border in the 1980s (East 1999, Heckel and Rayaleh 2008). In Somalia, Simonetta (1988) suggested they may survive on the northern slopes of the Ga'an Libah in the north-west, where tracks and local reports were recorded by Mallon and Jama (2015); there are recently discovered museum specimens collected in the 1960s from south and central Somalia that expand the known historical range  (Gippoliti and Fagotto 2012). There is no recent information on their status in South Sudan (they were not recorded during recent surveys in the south, Fay et al. 2007) or Uganda (East 1999).

Greater Kudu are well represented in protected areas, from southern Tanzania to South Africa, with major populations in parks and reserves such as Ruaha-Rungwa- Kisigo and Selous (Tanzania), Luangwa Valley and Kafue (Zambia), Etosha (Namibia), Moremi, Chobe and Central Kgalagadi (Botswana), Hwange, Chizarira, Mana Pools and Gonarezhou (Zimbabwe) and Kruger and Hluhluwe-Umfolozi (South Africa). It also occurs widely outside protected areas, including large numbers on private farms and conservancies in southern Africa (Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa) where it is a mainstay of the trophy hunting industry (East 1999). East (1999) estimated that some 60% of the global population occurs on private land, and they seem to be expanding their distribution outside protected areas.

In the northern parts of its range, key areas where some of the northern populations appear to have reasonable prospects for long-term survival include Zakouma N.P. (Chad), Awash N.P. (Ethiopia), Baringo, northern Laikipia and Tsavo (Kenya), and Tarangire (Tanzania) (East 1999).