Due to his father's failing marble business, Cruz decided to enter showbiz to help his family recover from financial problems.

He first appeared in GMA Public Affairs' reenactment legal talk show Compañero y Compañera, followed by the crime and investigative series Calvento Files.

In 1999, Cruz played the role of Rovic in the teen drama Tabing Ilog, alongside Kaye Abad, which lasted for almost four years.

In 2006, Cruz was cast in the highly successful soap opera Maging Sino Ka Man along with Bea Alonzo, Anne Curtis and Sam Milby.

He was also recruited as one of four members of the Kanto Boys alongside ASAP mainstays Vhong Navarro, Billy Crawford and Luis Manzano.

[19][20][21][22] In February 2009, Cruz's follow-up movie with Geronimo, You Changed My Life, a sequel to A Very Special Love also produced by Star Cinema and Viva Films, hit the box office.

[24] In mid-2009, he shifted from his regular roles for a more controversial, challenging project with Vilma Santos, in which he portrayed Luis Manzano's lover in the movie In My Life.

He then reunites again with Geronimo for It Takes a Man and a Woman, a third and final sequel of the films A Very Special Love and You Changed My Life, which was released in 2013.

In 2015, Cruz starred and produced a thriller movie Honor Thy Father, which was first screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.

He plays the part of a man who, after a period of estrangement from his family, returns home to seek their help when his wife gets them into trouble with violent investors whose money her dad had lost in a ponzi scheme.

He joins Hong Kong's Miriam Yeung and South Korea's Lee Byung-hun – all box office stars in their own countries – as that year's recipients of the award.

Cruz won the Boccalino d’Oro prize or Golden Jug Award for Best Actor for his lead role in Lav Diaz’s "Essential Truths of The Lake", 76th Locarno Film Festival on August 11, 2023.

[28] Cruz dated numerous personalities in the past, which include actresses Kaye Abad, Krista Ranillo, Ciara Sotto, Heart Evangelista, Ruffa Gutierrez, Shaina Magdayao, Angelica Panganiban and Ellen Adarna.