Born in Al Mansoura on 1 April 1983, Zaky started his career in his native town based club Al Mansoura and played for the first team in the Egyptian Premier League while he was only 17 year old. Before that he was playing as every child in the streets before the scouts of Al Mansoura club after him and signed him to play professional football. Zaky impressed in his first two season in the Egyptian Premier League and with Egypt U-20 National team, the champion of 2003 U-20 African Cup of Nations in Burkina Faso. Then he caught the attention of many clubs in Egypt and he moved to ENPPI for the 2003-04 season. At ENPPI, he became the Egyptian Premier League top goalscorer for the 2004-05 season and helped the club win its first trophy, the 2005 Egyptian Cup, as well as being runners-up in the Egyptian Premier League, their best position ever.

After impressing in the 2006 African Nations Cup, with hard working and many assists, he also scored the winning goal for Egypt in the semi-final against Senegal late in the second half, with his first touch moments after coming off the bench to replace a visibly irate Mido, Zaky got alot of offers and he decided to play for Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow, who signed him for a fee of € 1.7 million. However, he did not play a single match for Lokomotiv in the 3 months he spent there. In June 2006, Zaky moved back to the Egyptian Premier League and signed for the top giant Zamalek SC.

In two seasons at Zamalek, Zaky scored 30 goals in all competetions and his most precious goal was that superb one against ENPPI in 2008 Egypt cup final to make it 2-1 for Zamalek to win its first trophy since 2004.

That was the second title for Zaky in 2008 after winning the African Cup of Nations in Ghana with Egypt where he scored four crucil goals in the competition and he was chosen in the CAN 2008 All Star Starting XI. On July 22nd 2008, Zaky signed for Wigan Athletic on a one-year loan deal for a fee of £ 1.5 million. After scoring two goals in his two pre-season appearances for Wigan, Zaky scored on his league debut on 16 August against West Ham United at Fratton Park. Zaky finished the season as top scorer of Wigan Athletic with 10 goals in 22 starts plus scoring a goal in League Cup versus Notts County.

Zaky moved back to Zamalek SC after his loan period expired and decided to stay with the Egyptian outfit waiting for serious offers calling for his services. Zaky admitted that 2009 was not a good year for him because of injuries that he suffered and the failure of qualifying to the next 2010 FIFA World Cup.