After finishing university he initially worked in retail jobs for several years, including at Hugh Wright's, a men's clothing store.

"[6] He joined Princes Street Labour and later took part in the Hikoi for Hope, a 1998 nationwide protest against inequality led by the Anglican Church of New Zealand.

[7][8] Wood successfully contested the Puketāpapa Local Board representing Roskill Community Voice alongside his wife Julie Fairey in 2010.

[9] He was re-elected to that role in 2013,[10] but declined to contest the position again in 2016 after being selected to run in the safe Labour seat of Mount Roskill in the 2017 election.

[12][13] Following Goff's election to the Auckland mayoralty and resignation as a Member of Parliament in October 2016, Wood was confirmed as the candidate for the Mt Roskill by-election.

[18] He was sworn in as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Ethnic Communities following the formation of the Sixth Labour Government, and was additionally appointed as chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee.

[22] In the 2020 New Zealand general election, Wood was re-elected in Mount Roskill by a final margin of 13,853 votes, defeating the National Party's candidate Parmjeet Parmar.

[24][25] In a cabinet reshuffle announced by Ardern on 13 June 2022, Wood was succeeded as Deputy Leader of the House by Kieran McAnulty and took on the position of Minister of Immigration whilst retaining the Transport and Workplace Safety portfolios.

[28] In early July 2022, Wood in his capacity as Immigration Minister stated that hospitality and tourism businesses needed to raise their wages in order to attract more foreign workers to New Zealand.

Wevers was critical of Wood for having failed to manage his conflicts of interests as a minister, including "a lack of awareness of the need to correct errors and omissions" and to do so in a timely way, and for tarnishing the reputation of Parliament.

[37] Before the inquiry could be completed, on 21 June, Wood resigned as a minister, after revelations that additional shares he owned in Chorus, Spark, and National Australia Bank (NAB) had not been disclosed.

[45] During the 2023 New Zealand general election held on 14 October, Wood lost the Mt Roskill electorate to National Party candidate Carlos Cheung.

[47] After leaving Parliament, Wood was appointed as Negotiation Specialist at trade union E tū, where he advocated for workers impacted by a restructure at TVNZ in March 2024.

[52] Wood and Fairey have a long history of being politically active; both having run campaigns as electorate MPs in the 2002 New Zealand general election.