His first lead role was Lino Valdez in Miss Bala, gaining popular recognition and earning a nomination for an Ariel Award for Best Actor.

For his performance in the film Mexican Gangster: La Leyenda del Charro Misterioso he received a Diosa de Plata nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

He received further recognition for playing gang leader Martín in the Mexican film 600 Millas, for which he won a second Ariel Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2016.

[2] After graduating in 1994, he became a high school teacher for seven years in Toluca and at the same time founded an experimental theater group, later he relocated to Mexico City since he wanted to act in movies.

[1][2] Written by Naranjo and Mauricio Katz, the film, about a beauty pageant contestant, played by Stephanie Sigman, who witnesses a murder and after that is kidnapped by a gang leader named Lino Valdez (Hernández) who uses her for criminal purposes.

[1] The process was hard for Hernández, since he wanted to analyse the psychology of his character and get away from the narco stereotypes creating Valdez with "no crucifixes, or gold chains, or guns".

[4][5] In 2012, Hernández joined the cast of Colosio: El Asesinato, and the TV film Chalán, produced by Canal 22 and directed by Jorge Michel Grau.

[6] Hernández signed to play Canelita, the gay best friend of Cheba (Adriana Paz) in La Tirisia, a film written, produced and directed by Jorge Pérez Solano (2014).

[7] The plot, inspired by a popular term named tirisia (which means "a perpetual sadness defined as 'the death of the spirit'"), is set in the Mixteca region of Mexico, and centers on two women (Paz and Gabriela Cartol) who were impregnated by Sylvestre (Gustavo Sánchez Parra).

Jaime López Blanco of Sputnik magazine found him "exquisite as 'Canelita', as it demonstrates his charm and his comedic talents, showing a totally opposite of his previous work, Miss Bala".

In the film, weapons smuggler Arnulfo Rubio (Kristyan Ferrer) works for a Mexican cartel led by his uncle Martín (Hernández).

ATF agent Hank Harris (Tim Roth), who tries to arrest him, is kidnapped by Rubio to bring to his bosses; during the 600-mile (970 km) drive, they became friends.