In 2018, the Los Angeles Times reported that 395 women had accused Toback of sexual harassment or assault over a 40-year period.

In her review of Fingers, film critic Pauline Kael wrote of Toback's "true moviemaking fever.

"[18] Toback followed Fingers with Love and Money in 1982, Exposed in 1983, The Pick-up Artist in 1987, and the documentary The Big Bang in 1989.

[24] In 2009, the San Francisco International Film Festival selected Toback for its annual Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting.

French director Jacques Audiard's 2005 remake of Fingers as The Beat That My Heart Skipped won numerous Best Film awards.

"[29] Owen Gleiberman, chief film critic for Variety, called Toback's 2017 An Imperfect Murder "a thrift-shop psychological X-ray that demands to be taken on its own Tobackian terms.

An article in a 1989 issue of Spy magazine detailed how Toback would "hang out on the streets of the Upper West Side in New York City, and approach women.

[14] On October 22, 2017, Los Angeles Times columnist Glenn Whipp reported that 38 women have accused Toback of sexual harassment or assault.

[35][36] The alleged harassment occurred at meetings framed as interviews or casting auditions in places such as hotel rooms, movie trailers, or a public park where Toback asked questions pertaining to the women's sex lives and rubbed his crotch on them or masturbated.

[35][37] Accusers include actresses Rachel McAdams, Selma Blair, Terri Conn,[38] Caterina Scorsone,[39] Julianne Moore,[40] Becky Wahlstrom,[41] and musician Louise Post.

[42] In January 2018, Whipp reported that since the Times published its article in October 2017, a total of 395 women contacted the newspaper and said that Toback had sexually harassed them.

[32] In December 2022, a civil lawsuit was filed against Toback through the New York state Supreme Court after the Adult Survivors Act suspended the statutes of limitations for cases involving sex offenses for a one-year period.

[46][47] Toback married Consuelo Sarah Churchill Vanderbilt Russell in April 1968,[1] a relationship which quickly ended in divorce.