[2] He entered the film industry at the age of 19, his first role in the small part of one of the young men in a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in the 1937 drama Blazing Barriers.

[9] He then appeared in Rancho Grande, in which he played a spoiled rich heir unhappy at having to live on his grandfather's ranch.

[16] In 1942 he appeared in several films in smaller roles, until late in the year when he had the featured role of Gibby Dapper in the Lew Landers' biopic, Smith of Minnesota (1942), about and starring the Heisman Trophy winner Bruce Smith,[17] after which Mug Town was released, in which Hogan starred along with the Dead End Kids.

[22][23] His final screen performance of the year was in another World War II drama, this one set in the Pacific theater, So Proudly We Hail!, starring Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard (nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress), and Veronica Lake.

[25][26] As part of a company of actors in the Corps, Hogan and his wife appeared in an Air Corps production titled, Winged Victory, written and directed by Moss Hart, which was a large hit on Broadway at the 44th Street Theatre, before touring the United States for two years.

However, on Broadway he played the role of Frankie Davis one of the leads, while in the film he was cast as Jimmy Gardner.

In it, Hogan played the crucial role of David Kentley, the erstwhile friend who is strangled at the beginning of the picture and whose body is hidden in a chest while the murderers' guests have dinner in the same room.

Hogan's final acting appearance was on the Broadway stage, in the unsuccessful comedy, Time for Elizabeth, which ran for only eight performances at the Fulton Theatre in September–October 1948.