We report direct measurements via angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) of the electronic dispersion of single-layer (SL) CoO₂. The Fermi contour consists of a large hole pocket centered at the point. To interpret the ARPES results, we use density functional theory (DFT) in combination with the multi-orbital Gutzwiller Approximation (DFT+GA), basing our calculations on crystalline structure parameters derived from x-ray photoelectron diffraction and low-energy electron diffraction. Our calculations are in good agreement with the measured dispersion. We conclude that the material is a moderately correlated metal. We also discuss substrate effects, and the influence of hydroxylation on the CoO₂ SL electronic structure.