[1] Hyman knew at age 4 that he wanted to become an actor after performing a poem at a church play and was determined to become one after seeing a production of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts.
He made his Broadway stage debut as a teenager in 1943 in Run, Little Chillun, and later joined the American Negro Theater.
[8] In December 1958 he came to London to play the leading role in Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, by Errol John, at the Royal Court.
[9] In 1959 he again appeared in the West End, this time in the first London production of A Raisin In the Sun alongside Kim Hamilton.
A life member of The Actors Studio,[10] Hyman appeared throughout his career in productions in both the United States and Norway, where he also owned property.
In personal correspondences Hyman wrote that he and Rolf Sirnes (1926–2004), a Norwegian seaman, had lived together for fifty years.