When his friend Skarsgård applied to a selective upper secondary school, Södra Latin's drama program near where both boys lived, Varela wanted to do the same.

[3] After a brief appearance in the soap opera Nya tider, he left Sweden for a while and on returning worked as a construction worker with small acting jobs for a sideline.

After reading the bestselling Swedish crime novel Snabba Cash and hearing that a film production company Tre Vänner was adapting the book for the big screen he set his sights on starring as the Swedish-Chilean drug dealer Jorge Salinas.

[10][11] Among his projects in 2015 and 2016 were Johan Renck's quirky crime drama Ettor och nollor alongside his old friend Gustaf Skarsgård,[12] the 2015 remake Point Break,[13] and the video game adaptation Assassin's Creed, with Michael Fassbender.

[14] In 2017, he starred as Jorge Salcedo Cabrera, the head of security for the Cali Cartel in season three of the Netflix series Narcos.