After studying acting at the Drama Centre London, Hardy made his film debut in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down in 2001.

[15][16] In 1998, Hardy won The Big Breakfast's Find Me a Supermodel competition at the age of 21 (although the programme said he was 20), earning him a brief contract with Models 1.

[17] Hardy joined Drama Centre London in September 1998, and was taken out early after winning the part of US Army Private John Janovec in the HBO-BBC mini-series Band of Brothers.

[19] During this time, Hardy also had a brief stint as a rapper and hip hop producer with his friend Edward Tracy (under the name "Tommy No 1 + Eddie Too Tall"), with whom he recorded a mixtape called Falling On Your Arse in 1999 that remained unreleased until 2018.

[20] In 2002, Hardy appeared as the Reman Praetor Shinzon, a clone of USS Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: Nemesis.

[21] The following year, he appeared in the film Dot the i, and then travelled to North Africa for Simon: An English Legionnaire, a story of the French Foreign Legion.

[23] He was also nominated for a 2004 Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer of 2003 in a Society of London Theatre Affiliate for his performance as Skank in the aforementioned production of In Arabia We'd All Be Kings.

He played the lead role of Stuart Shorter, a homeless man who had been subjected to years of abuse and whose death was possibly a suicide.

[27] The same year he played Bill Sikes in the BBC mini-series Oliver Twist, an adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel that aired on PBS Masterpiece Classic in the US.

[30] In June 2009, Hardy starred in Martina Cole's four-part TV drama The Take on Sky One, as a drug and alcohol-fuelled gangster.

Hardy replaced Michael Fassbender in the 2011 film adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,[37] released on 5 September 2011 at the 68th edition of the Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica in Venice.

His performance as Tommy Riordan, who is trained by his father to fight in a mixed martial arts tournament against his brother, gained praise from critics.

[40] Hardy has signed up to play the lead role of Sam Fisher in Ubisoft's forthcoming film adaptation of their video game series Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.

[54] On 7 December 2015, Hardy won Best Actor at the British Independent Film Awards for his portrayal of the Kray twins, and on the same night attended the premiere of the biographical western thriller The Revenant, in which he reunited with his Inception co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, at Leicester Square, London.

[59][60] Based on the Marvel source material, the film was released on 5 October, and is the first instalment in Sony's Spider-Man Universe.

[67] In 2010, Hardy became an ambassador for the Prince's Trust, a UK youth charity which provides training, personal development, business start-up support, mentoring, and advice.

[71] He met and began dating assistant director Rachael Speed on the set of The Virgin Queen in 2005, and they later had a son[72] before separating in 2009.

[73] That year, he began a relationship with actress Charlotte Riley after they met on the set of Wuthering Heights, and they were married in July 2014.

[76] Hardy spent much time in his youth drinking alcohol and using crack cocaine to cope with stresses and has suffered significant bouts of dysthymia.

[87] He is the lead ambassador for the REORG Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Foundation,[88] a Royal Marines-backed charity allowing current and former military personnel to learn the martial art as part of their recovery and to combat physical and mental challenges.