He previously played for the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and the Wests Tigers in the National Rugby League (NRL), and for the World All Stars at representative level.. Taupau was born in Auckland, New Zealand.

[4] In Round 5, Taupau made his first grade debut against the New Zealand Warriors off the interchange bench in the Bulldogs 30-24 loss at ANZ Stadium,[6] in what was his only appearance of the season.

[16] Taupau's good form for the Tigers lead to him being selected to debut for the New Zealand national rugby league team in the May 2014 Anzac Test at SFS.

[17] Taupau was one of just two players to play in every Wests Tigers game for the season as well as scoring 3 tries, and was the club's second best for metres gained with the ball.

In the final against Australia in the Kiwis 22-18 win, Taupau left the ground with a suspected neck injury, but had already made three tackle breaks, three offloads, and was described as "the toast of the team."

[21] After receiving a crusher tackle during the game, Taupau made a throat-slitting gesture towards Australian opponent Sam Thaiday.

"[22] In Round 14 against the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the Tigers shock upset 34-6 win at ANZ Stadium, Taupau scored his first career double.

As Taupau was in England with the Kiwis on their tour of Great Britain, an e-mail that outlined the contract was supposed to be sent from a UK based solicitor to Manly CEO Joe Kelly.

However, in an embarrassing foul up the e-mail was accidentally sent to the G-mail account of Canadian theatre critic J. Kelly Nestruck who then announced Taupau's 4-year deal with the Sea Eagles on his Twitter page.

[34] In July 2017, Taupau enrolled in a Bachelor of Business degree after developing an interest in marketing and economics and attends lectures at the UTS (University of Technology Sydney) Ultimo campus one night per week after finishing his training with the Sea Eagles at Narrabeen.

[35] Taupau made 24 appearances for Manly in 2018 as the club endured one of its toughest ever seasons narrowly avoiding the wooden spoon by 2 competition points.

[42] Taupau played 26 games for Manly in the 2021 NRL season including the club's preliminary final loss against South Sydney.