[citation needed] Chaplin spent her childhood mostly in Spain, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Cuba, but travelled often because of her mother's film career.

She has played alongside her mother in the feature films Inconceivable, ¿Para qué sirve un oso?, Imago Mortis and Anchor and Hope.

She appeared as a Brazilian cage dancer in ITV's Married Single Other (2010); as Marnie Madden, the wife of main character Hector Madden, in the BBC period drama The Hour (2011–2012); as John Watson's girlfriend in an episode of BBC's Sherlock (2012); and as Talisa Maegyr in HBO's Game of Thrones (2012–2013).

[12][13] In 2024, she presented the BBC radio documentary Hollywood Exiles, which covered her grandfather's blacklisting by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

[14] Chaplin is a trustee of The Boa Foundation, an international organization that works with indigenous communities to regenerate degraded ecosystems and protect biodiversity.