While performing in small theatre productions, Martin secured a starring role in Susan Seidelman's Academy Award-nominated short film The Dutch Master.
After arriving in Los Angeles in 1999, he appeared in the Warner Brothers thriller Swordfish starring John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry and Don Cheadle.
In the film Martin plays Axl Torvalds, an internationally renowned computer hacker who leads FBI agents on the trail of a criminal mastermind.
Before Swordfish Martin played a role in the original Showtime series Beggars and Choosers, an inside look at the television networks developed by Peter Lefcourt and Brandon Tartikoff that was popular within the entertainment industry.
The film was shot in 2000 on authentic locations in Romania and tells the story of Prince Vlad III Dracula, "the Impaler" (1431–1476), who inspired the name of Bram Stoker's fictional vampire count.
He has also guest starred in other television dramas, notably Judging Amy, Crossing Jordan and in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as a serial killer motivated by Shakespearean sonnets, as well as Mossad agent Ari Haswari, the antagonist to Mark Harmon on the hit show NCIS for seasons 1–2 until that character's violent death.