A native of the South Bronx, Hughes studied jazz composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. At the age of nineteen, he became one of the youngest members ever to be given lifetime membership in The Actor's Studio. He also studied with acting Teacher Sonia Moore. After numerous stage productions Off-Broadway, Hughes made his feature film debut in Robert Celestino's True Convictions (1991).
Following his first appearance in True Convictions, Hughes has starred in such films as: Bad Boys (1995) opposite Will Smith, Lonely in America (1991), The Funeral (1996) opposite Benicio del Toro and Christopher Walken, Layin' Low (1996), Mr. Vincent (1997) (for which he won mass critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival for his role as John Vincent), Urban Jungle (1999), Robbers (2000), Anacardium (2001) (for which he won "Best Actor" at the New York Independent Film Festival), and Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002). He also appeared in Robert Celestino's Yonkers Joe opposite Chazz Palminteri and Christine Lahti and in Jon Avnet's Righteous Kill (2008) opposite Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. In 2009, Hughes joined the cast of the series 24 as Secretary of Homeland Security, Tim Woods. He reprised the role for the season released in 2010.
Hughes wrote, produced and starred in Leave (2011). In 2013 he wrote and produced Dark Tourist starring Michael Cudlitz and Melanie Griffith. That same year, Hughes signed a two-picture deal with Warner Bros. to adapt Shovel Ready into a feature film starring Denzel Washington, as well as to write a screenplay for a project titled Tier 1.
Hughes is currently writing an Untitled Western film for Sony Pictures. The film will star Tom Hanks, and will be directed by Frank Darabont. He has also completed writing an original story, 77 Blackout for Paramount Pictures. In addition to these projects, he has also completed a re-write for Splinter Cell, a film adaptation based on the Ubisoft video game franchise of the same name reportedly scheduled to begin production in late-2017, starring Tom Hardy as the film's protagonist Sam Fisher.
