[4][7] After a series of injuries ended his career, he wanted to join the British Army,[5] believing it to be his only realistic option to make an honest living.

"[2] O'Connell made his professional acting debut in 2005 when he played a runaway with anger issues in an episode of Doctors, followed by a recurring role as a boy accused of rape in The Bill.

[1][11] His stage debut came that same year after a rendition of the play The Spider Men by the Television Workshop was selected to be performed at the Royal National Theatre in London.

[13][14] At age 15, he was deemed too old to play the main character, leading filmmaker Shane Meadows to write the supporting role of the belligerent Pukey specifically for him.

[16] Variety's David Benedict wrote of his stage performance, "His sincere grasp of Daz's innocent tenderness is, paradoxically, a sign of the character's—and the actor's—unexpected maturity.

[1] O'Connell first found fame, chiefly among people his age, as the troubled and hard-living James Cook in the third and fourth series of the E4 teen drama Skins (2009–10).

[2] Grantland writer Amos Barshad opined that among his co-stars, which included Dev Patel and Nicholas Hoult, none "ever quite matched the luminescent, leering mania of O'Connell's Cook.

[5] His portrayal of a teenaged father in the BBC Two drama Dive (2010) earned him critical praise; Euan Ferguson of The Guardian described it as "a performance that is of an actor twice his years: mesmerising, comedic and soulful.

[29] Similarly, the thriller Tower Block (2012), about flat tenants under attack from a sniper, received mixed reviews,[30] but The Hollywood Reporter critic Jordan Mintzer singled out O'Connell as "the standout [of the cast]" as the building's protection racketeer.

[13][31] Following his turn as a soldier in Private Peaceful (2012), an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Michael Morpurgo, he co-starred as the apprentice of a hitman played by Tim Roth in The Liability (2012), both of which met with mixed critical reception.

[5] Writing for Empire, Nev Pierce opined, "In a superb ensemble, O'Connell is outstanding," adding, "We know he can do violence, but here he holds the screen with no swagger—just a simple desire to survive.

[5] He portrayed Louis Zamperini, an Italian-American Olympic distance runner who, as a bombardier in the Second World War, survived a plane crash over the Pacific and was held for two years in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps.

[40] The resulting performance was positively received; Richard Corliss of Time concluded, "Jolie has made a grand, solid movie of the Zamperini story, but O'Connell is the part of Unbroken that was truly worth the wait.

[6] His childhood nickname "Jack the Lad" (a phrase meaning "a conspicuously self-assured, carefree, brash young man")[46] is tattooed on his arm.

[8][47] O'Connell's troubled youth has influenced his work, resulting in him playing mainly delinquents for the first decade of his career,[6] while his juvenile criminal record initially prevented him from being cast in Hollywood productions as he was unable to obtain a U.S.

Inspired by primary accounts of refugees, and is part of UNHCR's #WithRefugees campaign, which also includes a petition to governments to expand asylum to provide further shelter, integrating job opportunities, and education.