[2] He studied art at Brown University and The Rhode Island School of Design;[3] and later attended the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television, where he met and became friends with Matthew Robbins, along with other film students such as Walter Murch, Robert Dalva, George Lucas and others who came to be known by some as The Dirty Dozen, and who went on to considerable success in the film industry.

In 1965, as a student, Barwood wrote, directed, and produced the short animated film, A Child's Introduction to the Cosmos, and in 1970, The Great Walled City of Xan.

Barwood's career path opened up when he and Matthew Robbins were hired to write the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's first theatrical feature film, the crime drama film The Sugarland Express starring Goldie Hawn, based on a real life incident about a married couple who are chased by police as the couple tries to regain custody of their baby.

The next year, 1978, Robbins and Barwood wrote the adventure comedy film Corvette Summer, starring Mark Hamill.

[9] In the 1970s, he also co-wrote an unproduced screenplay with Robbins called Home Free, for which Ralph McQuarrie was contracted to do a series of conceptual paintings.

Following the success of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure, LucasArts initially wanted him to make a video game adaptation of Indiana Jones and the Monkey King, an unproduced script written by Chris Columbus during the early development of the third film,[19] but Barwood considered the idea "substandard",[20] so he convinced the staff to make an original story.

Along with Noah Falstein, Barwood and the LucasArts staff ended up creating the 1992 adventure game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis,[11] which was a success.

Due to the successful reception of Fate of Atlantis, Barwood helped Joe Pinney, Bill Stoneham, and Aric Wilmunder conceive a sequel to Fate entitled Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix, in which after World War II, Indiana Jones would need to defeat Neo-Nazis in order to prevent Adolf Hitler's resurrection in Bolivia with the Philosopher's Stone.

In 1995, Barwood worked on Big Sky Trooper and directed the live-action sequences of Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire, both released that same year and receiving mixed reviews.

In 2008–2009, Barwood served as the lead designer and writer on Mata Hari,[28] a World War I spy action adventure game developed by German studio Cranberry Production.

[17] On April 3, 2017, during an interview with Arcade Attack, Barwood stated that although he liked very much working on Indiana Jones video games, he had no desire to make any new titles.