Having a penchant for acting at a very early age, Nicholas Hoult appeared in a play titled "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" at the age of three. It only took another two years for him to make his professional debut at the age of five in the movie Intimate Relations. However, it was his role in the movie About A Boy which earned him critical appreciation and was also nominated for the Critics Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer.

Hoult, however, is popularly known for essaying the role of Beast in the X-Men series while some of his other notable roles include Kenny Potter in A Single Man and the zombie R in the movie Warm Bodies (2013). In 2017, he essayed the role of J.D. Salinger in the movie Rebel in the Rye. His 2019 works include the role of the acclaimed writer J.R.R. Tolkien in the biographical drama Tolkien, and the role of Nikola Tesla in The Current War and Dark Phoenix. His other projects include The Banker (2020) and Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021).