Jordan initially broke out in television, playing Wallace in the first season of the HBO crime drama series The Wire (2002). He went on to play Reggie Montgomery on the ABC soap opera All My Children (2003–2006) and Vince Howard in the NBC sports drama series Friday Night Lights (2009–2011). His other films include Chronicle (2012), That Awkward Moment (2014), Fantastic Four (2015), and Just Mercy (2019), in which he portrayed Bryan Stevenson. He has also starred in and produced the HBO film Fahrenheit 451 (2018), for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie.