Ferguson was born in Dallas, Texas. In 1989, Ferguson was plucked from obscurity to play Ponyboy Curtis in the television adaptation of S. E. Hinton's novel The Outsiders.
His notable television roles include Taylor Newton in four seasons of the CBS sitcom Evening Shade, Dr. Todd Hooper on Judging Amy, Rich Connelly in the 2005 NBC television series Surface, Agent Warren Russell on the Showtime series Sleeper Cell, Stan Rizzo on the AMC series Mad Men, and as Pat O'Neal, the father of the O'Neal family in the ABC series The Real O'Neals.
In 2018, he began playing the lead role of Chip Curry in the CBS sitcom Living Biblically.
