He first wrote for a communist youth magazine Sztandar Młodych in his sophomore year at the University of Warsaw in 1956.

In college, he wrote satirical texts for a student standup comedy group Studencki Teatr Satyryków (STS).

In addition to his articles and columns, Passent wrote several books, among others about the Vietnam War, the Olympic Summer Games 1972 in Munich, about the drug problem in the US, and about the world class Polish tennis player, Wojciech Fibak.

He also translated books and other texts by James Baldwin and Martin Luther King Jr. into Polish.

[2] An article[3] in a conservative Polish newspaper Dziennik, claimed that Passent worked in the 1960s as a spy for the communist government under the code names "Daniel" and "John".