At age 15, Hopkins fell into the acting business when his mother brought him to a casting-call audition in New York for the Warner Bros. feature Lean on Me, in which he got a starring role opposite Morgan Freeman as Thomas Sams, a misguided drug-abusing high school student.
His next project Juice, directed by Ernest R. Dickerson, had him starring as Steel alongside Khalil Kain, Omar Epps, and Tupac Shakur.
Hopkins subsequently starred in the HBO worldwide release Strapped, that would be Forest Whitaker's directorial debut.
[4] Hopkins was arrested on December 15, 2011, for attempting to purchase 200 pounds (91 kg) of marijuana from an undercover police officer.
Hopkins was arrested again on October 13, 2017, in Apex, North Carolina with 5.7 pounds (2.6 kg) of marijuana in the trunk of his car.