He gained prominence through his roles as Will Scarlet in the BBC drama Robin Hood (2006), Jeremy Baines in the Doctor Who episodes "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" (2007), and Viserys Targaryen in the first season of the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011).

Lloyd was educated at Eton College and, while there, made his television debut at the age of 16 as James Steerforth in the BBC's 1999 adaptation of David Copperfield opposite Daniel Radcliffe.

[citation needed] In 2007, Lloyd made his professional stage debut at the Trafalgar Studios in A Gaggle of Saints, one of three short plays that make up Neil LaBute's Bash, for which he received positive reviews.

[3] He had small roles in Jane Eyre and The Iron Lady, and starred as the son of a gangster in The Fear, which aired on Channel 4 in December 2012.

[18] In 2012, he appeared as Sir Edmund Mortimer in the BBC television film The Hollow Crown: Henry IV, Part 1, and he played Ferdinand, The Duke of Calabria, in The Duchess of Malfi at the Old Vic in London.

[20] The following year he played Adolf Opálka in the epic war film Anthropoid, also starring Jamie Dornan and Cillian Murphy.

In 2022, Lloyd voiced Brian McNally in the Audible original podcast series, The Miranda Obsession[23] and Z in the video game Xenoblade Chronicles 3.