Boal initially worked as a journalist, writing for outlets like Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, Salon, and Playboy.

In 2012 he wrote and produced Zero Dark Thirty, teaming again with director Kathryn Bigelow, about the tracking and killing of Osama bin Laden.

Boal's 2004 article "Death and Dishonor", about the 2003 murder of veteran Richard T. Davis after his return to the United States, was published in Playboy magazine.

Boal went on to write an original screenplay, titled The Hurt Locker, about a fictional set of characters and events based on his interviews and observations in Iraq.

He was also a producer for the 2009 film adaptation set in Iraq, about a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) bomb squad.

In March 2010 (five days before the Academy Awards ceremony), Master Sergeant Jeffrey S. Sarver announced he was suing the producers of The Hurt Locker because Boal allegedly based the main character and "virtually all of the situations" in the film on events involving him.

[12] In March 2011, Boal published an article in Rolling Stone about the Maywand District murders titled: The Kill Team: How U.S.

Boal was nominated for Writing in a Drama by the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers for his work on Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.