In this article, we explore an embedded shell finite element method for the unfitted discretization of solid–shell interaction problems. Its core component is a variationally consistent approach that couples a shell discretization on the surface of an embedded solid domain to its unfitted discretization with hexahedral solid elements. Derived via an augmented Lagrangian formulation and the formal elimination of interface Lagrange multipliers, our method depends only on displacement variables, facilitated by a shift of the displacement-dependent traction vector entirely to the solid structure. We demonstrate that the weighted least squares term required for stability of the formulation triggers severe surface locking due to a mismatch in the polynomial spaces of the shell element and the embedding solid element. We show that reduced quadrature of the stabilization term that evaluates the kinematic constraint at the nodes of the embedded shell elements completely mitigates surface locking. For coarse discretizations, our variationally consistent method achieves superior accuracy with respect to a locking-free nodal penalty method. We illustrate the versatility of embedded shell finite elements for image-based analysis, including patient-specific stress prediction in a vertebra and local rind buckling in a plant structure. •We couple a shell mesh on the surface of an embedded solid domain to its unfitted volumetric mesh.•The variationally consistent formulation depends only on displacement variables.•Its stabilization term triggers surface locking due to a polynomial mismatch between shell and solid elements.•Reduced quadrature of the stabilization term mitigates surface locking.•We present two use cases: patient-specific stress prediction in a vertebra and local rind buckling in a plant structure.