This is slightly trickier than I anticipated so noting it down for future reference.
The command should be along these lines (assuming AWS keys are configured via environment variables or config file):
$ docker-machine create \
-d amazonec2 \
--amazonec2-region us-west-1 \
--amazonec2-ami ami-818bd5e1 \
--amazonec2-zone b \
--amazonec2-ssh-user core \
--amazonec2-device-name "/dev/xvda" \
coreosvm
Since CoreOS SSH user is core
you must specify that. Likewise, the root device is not /dev/sda
as usual but rather /dev/xvda
so you must be specific about this. You can get the AMIs from CoreOS website.