The water slammed into the Chinese-owned COSL Innovator at the Troll gas field, west of Bergen, on Wednesday afternoon.
Three people were airlifted for medical treatment by Norwegian rescuers, but one later died of their injuries.
Eileen Brundtland, a spokeswoman at the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority, said after the fatality: "The weather was rough during the accident, with waves as high as 14m and wind speed 25m to 30m per second.
"Strong winds prevented a helicopter from landing on the rig and people had to be lifted."
About 50 of the 106 staff working on the rig have been evacuated and flown to the Norwegian coast.
According to Statoil, the oil firm which operates Troll, the breaking wave also caused some damage to the rig's accommodation module.
Doctors, nurses and psychologists assisted evacuees at a facility on land.
The nationalities of those involved are yet to be disclosed.
Meanwhile, BP announced it had decided to shut the Valhall field, several hundred miles to the south, due to safety concerns.
More than 100 people were taken off the rig after a 110-metre long barge drifted towards it, BP spokesman Olav Fjellsa told Sky News.
He said the vessel eventually passed by without causing any damage and the company was preparing to start normal operations again.
According to the Met Office, two areas off the coast of Norway are experiencing winds of 11 on the Beaufort scale - a "violent storm" and one scale less than hurricane force.
This is the first fatal accident off Norway for six years. In 2009, a person died after falling from scaffolding at the Oseberg B platform in the North Sea.
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