As an actor, Matuszak played in both films and television, appearing first as O. W. Shaddock in North Dallas Forty (1979) followed by Tonda in Caveman (1981) and the deformed Sloth in The Goonies (1985).

[1] After a freshman year playing football at Fort Dodge Junior College in Iowa, Matuszak was recruited to the University of Missouri by Dan Devine.

With Dan Devine leaving Missouri for the Green Bay Packers that same year, Matuszak no longer had a spot on the team, and his scholarship was revoked by new coach Al Onofrio.

Another Golden Flashes senior, future seven-time national championship coach Nick Saban, suffered a season-ending injury in October.

The displeased Oilers traded him to the Kansas City Chiefs for Curley Culp, another player who had threatened to jump to the WFL, and a first-round draft choice in 1975 on October 22, 1974.

Offensive guard John Hannah, selected fourth by the New England Patriots, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991, his first year of eligibility, following a 13-year career, while quarterback Bert Jones (Baltimore Colts), offensive tackle Jerry Sisemore, tight end Charle Young (Philadelphia Eagles), and defensive tackle Dave Butz (St. Louis Cardinals) were all prominent throughout the rest of the 1970s and into the 1980s.

He appeared in the movies Caveman, The Ice Pirates, One Man Force, and One Crazy Summer but is frequently remembered as deformed captive Sloth in The Goonies, the makeup for which took five hours to apply.

He had numerous guest appearances in TV shows such as Perfect Strangers, M*A*S*H, The Dukes of Hazzard, Hunter, Silver Spoons, The A-Team, 1st & Ten, Hollywood Beat and Miami Vice.

Matuszak died on June 17, 1989, as a result of acute propoxyphene intoxication, an accidental overdose of the prescription drug Darvocet, according to the findings of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office.