[11] In 2009, he founded the ModRetro Forums with a friend, creating an online community for "portabilization", a hobby that revolves around turning old hardware devices such as game consoles and PCs into self-contained portable units mixing new and old technology.

Existing head-mounted displays in the market suffered from low contrast and field-of-view, high latency and cost, and extreme bulk and weight.

He completed his first prototype, called PR1, at age 17 in his parents' garage,[6] which featured a 90-degree field of view, low latency, and built-in haptic feedback.

[1][6][8][13] To fund these projects, he earned at least US$36,000 by fixing and reselling damaged iPhones[1] and working part-time as a groundskeeper, youth sailing coach, and computer repair technician.

[4] Luckey developed a series of prototypes exploring features like 3D stereoscopy, wireless, and extreme 270-degree field-of-view, while also decreasing the size and weight of his systems.

When Luckey launched his Kickstarter campaign for the Oculus Rift, it also contained recorded endorsements from other prominent figures in the game industry, including Cliff Bleszinski, David Helgason, and Michael Abrash.

"[6] Luckey continued to work on all aspects of the business, saying, "I have my hands in everything, from product engineering to game development to marketing,"[12] Later, he shifted his focus towards virtual reality input hardware, calling it a "pet project" that eventually culminated in the Oculus Touch spatial controller.

[17][18] ZeniMax claimed it had invested "tens of millions of dollars in research and development" into VR technology, and that "Oculus and Luckey lacked the necessary expertise and technical know-how to create a viable virtual reality headset".

The jury found that Luckey had violated a non-disclosure agreement he had with ZeniMax, but awarded zero damages on this charge, judging the harm as de minimis.

[22] In September 2016, it was reported that Luckey had donated $10,000 to Nimble America, a pro-Donald Trump group that ran a billboard depicting 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with the caption "Too Big to Jail".

[27] Tomorrow Today Labs later reversed this position, saying they "failed to find any evidence backing up the Daily Beast’s claim that Luckey paid for hate speech.

[33] In November 2018, The Wall Street Journal obtained access to internal Facebook emails which suggested the matter was discussed at the highest levels of the company.

[34] After his firing, Luckey hired an employment lawyer, and together negotiated a payout of at least $100 million, arguing that the company had violated California law for allegedly pressuring the executive to voice support for Johnson and for punishing an employee for political activity.

[41][42] In September 2020, Luckey announced through Twitter that Anduril had received a contract worth $967M for the Advanced Battle Management Systems (ABMS), a cutting-edge multi-billion dollar project by the U.S. Air Force.

[43] In February 2022, Luckey announced that Anduril had won a $1 billion contract to lead counter-unmanned systems work for United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM).

[7][8] In 2015, Luckey was featured on the cover of Time magazine in the article "The Surprising Joy of Virtual Reality",[51] in an image that was widely ridiculed on the internet,[52][53][54][55][56] with questions being asked if the entire field of VR had been damaged.

[57] In 2015, a Forbes article stated that Luckey lived in a shared house with several others where they regularly played multiplayer videogames and typically wore casual clothes like shorts, T-shirts, Hawaiian shirts, and sandals.

[58] The character Keenan Feldspar, played by Haley Joel Osment, who appeared on several episodes of the HBO TV show Silicon Valley in 2017, was speculated by some to be based on Luckey.

[72] On June 8, 2024, Luckey co-hosted another fundraiser for Trump at the home of health insurance company co-founder John Word, where donors spent up to $100,000 per person to attend.