[5][7] In 1993, Schaech played the lead role in Franco Zeffirelli's period drama Sparrow (Italian: Storia di una capinera).

[37][38] In 2009, Schaech guest starred in a Cold Case, playing Julian Bellows, a light-skinned black man who was passing as white to live a better life.

[40][41][42][43] He appeared in five episodes of the first season of the Showtime series Ray Donovan as an eccentric movie star, Sean Walker, and played the Egyptian mercenary Tarak in The Legend of Hercules, gaining 30 pounds (14 kg) of muscle for the role.

[45] Between 2016 and 2018, Schaech appeared in the first three seasons of the television series Legends of Tomorrow as the DC Comics bounty hunter Jonah Hex.

[49] In 2016, Schaech shot the heist movie Marauders, playing a possibly corrupt cop whose wife is dying of cancer.

[51] In 2018, Schaech appeared in noir crime drama The Night Clerk opposite Ana de Armas.

[53] Schaech played Marshall Hitchcock opposite Jason Scott Lee in The Wind & the Reckoning, a Hawaiian Western historical drama film released on 4 November 2022.

[54][55] In 2022, he played cult leader Chisos in Frank and Penelope written and directed by Sean Patrick Flanery.

The series of the same name expands the film's storyline, and Schaech reprises his lead role as Sheriff Justin Wise.

[72] In a January 11, 2018, article in People Magazine, Schaech said director Franco Zeffirelli sexually assaulted him during the filming of Sparrow (1993).

Schaech wrote that the assault affected his confidence and caused trauma that led to his addictions to sex, drugs, and alcohol.

[73][74][75] In 2019, Schaech took part in the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) PSA, "Won't Stay Quiet" as a survivor of sexual violence.