Daly began his professional career while a student at Vermont's Bennington College, where he studied Theatre and Literature, acted in summer stock, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.

[8] Daly debuted on stage when he was seven years old in Jenny Kissed Me by Jean Kerr, together with his parents and two sisters.

He appeared for the first time on TV when he was 10 years old in an American Playhouse adaptation of An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, which starred his father James Daly.

Daly started his professional acting career when he appeared in a 1978 adaptation of Peter Shaffer's play Equus.

In an interview with New Zealand 'ZM' radio personality Polly Gillespie, Daly was quoted as saying, "I think part of it (his self-critical nature) is passed down to me from my parents who are actors.

The show was set at Tom Nevers Field, a small airport in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where the Hackett brothers operated the one-plane airline, Sandpiper Air.

In 1997, he and J. Todd Harris formed Daly-Harris Productions,[10] through which he produced such films as: Execution of Justice (1999) (TV), Urbania (2000) and Tick Tock (2000).

In 1998, Daly appeared in several episodes of the Emmy award-winning, Tom Hanks-produced HBO mini-series From the Earth to the Moon playing astronaut Jim Lovell.

From 2007 to 2012, Daly played a love interest for Kate Walsh's character on the TV series Private Practice.

[citation needed] Daly also created Wandering Bark Productions, based at Paramount Pictures, a company designed to develop and produce a variety of film, television and theater projects.

The company's producing credits include the Los Angeles premiere of Vincent J. Cardinal's play A Colorado Catechism, starring Daly.

[citation needed] Daly co-produced a documentary, PoliWood, about the 2008 Democratic and Republican National conventions.

[citation needed] In 2014, Daly guest starred in recurring roles on The Mindy Project and Hot in Cleveland.

"[14][15] In August 2007, Daly became one of the three chairs for TCC's activity at the 2008 Democratic and Republican conventions, along with actress Kerry Washington and writer/director Sue Kramer.