Beginning his career in the early 2000s, he came to prominence for portraying Shane Walsh on the AMC horror drama series The Walking Dead (2010–2012; 2018), where he was a starring cast member in the first two seasons.

His film roles include Snitch (2013), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Fury (2014), Sicario (2015), The Accountant (2016), Baby Driver (2017), Wind River (2017), Widows (2018), Ford v Ferrari (2019), Those Who Wish Me Dead, King Richard, The Many Saints of Newark (all 2021), and Origin (2023).

[2][3] He is the son of Joan Lurie (née Marx) and Eric Lawrence "Rick" Bernthal, a former lawyer with Latham & Watkins LLP and chair of the board of directors for The Humane Society of the United States until 2019.

[5] He has two brothers: Nicholas, an orthopedic surgeon and professor at UCLA, and Thomas, a consulting agency CEO who is married to former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

[18] Since 2002, Bernthal has performed in over thirty plays regionally and Off-Broadway, including many with his own theater company, the now defunct Fovea Floods.

[19] He also had small guest roles in multiple television series, such as Boston Legal, CSI: Miami and How I Met Your Mother (S01E02).

[citation needed] Bernthal found critical success portraying Shane Walsh in Frank Darabont's The Walking Dead, based on the comic book series of the same name.

[22] Bernthal reunited with Darabont for the TNT series Mob City, in which he played LAPD Detective Joe Teague, a police officer working in a corrupt 1940s Los Angeles, which was cancelled after one season.

[25][26] After its world premiere run Small Engine Repair was transferred Off-Broadway by MCC Theater with Bernthal signing on to reprise his role.

[31][32] Bernthal next appeared in Denis Villeneuve's 2015 action drama film Sicario, which won numerous awards and received positive reviews from critics.

[33][34][35] 2015 also saw Bernthal in supporting roles in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, winner of the US Grand Jury Prize for drama at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and We Are Your Friends.

[citation needed] During this time, Bernthal portrayed NAACP attorney Michael H. Sussman in the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero.

[36] In June 2015, Marvel announced that Bernthal would play Frank Castle / The Punisher in season two of Netflix's superhero series Daredevil, which was released on March 18, 2016.

Due to the actor's preference to stay in character on film sets, he chose not to speak to the cast or crew for the first few weeks of production.

[49][50][51] During the press tours at this time Bernthal's interview on Jim Norton and Sam Roberts made news due to his description of Kevin Spacey (who had faced recent sexual assault charges) making him uncomfortable on the set of Baby Driver.

He played business magnate Lee Iacocca in a supporting role for James Mangold's action biographical drama Ford v Ferrari.

[59] In January 2019, Bernthal joined the cast of The Many Saints of Newark, the prequel feature film of HBO's The Sopranos,[60] which was released in October 2021.

[citation needed] Bernthal has also done work in the PC and console gaming world as a voice actor, and his appearance has been used for non-playable characters (NPCs).

From cops to gang members, soldiers and doctors, activists and first responders, you're going to hear from people who aren't pushing any agenda other than honest, open dialogue.

[67][68] Bernthal and his brother Nicholas run the nonprofit organization Drops Fill Buckets, described as an "impact-driven, entrepreneurial approach to making a difference".