Rose to prominence when he landed a starring role as Landry Clarke on the acclaimed series Friday Night Lights. He later played Todd Alquist in the fifth and final season of Breaking Bad.
Some of his earliest film roles were in Varsity Blues and All the Pretty Horses before landing a major role in Like Mike in 2002.
He has appeared in other high-profile television series such as Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Grey's Anatomy, and Cold Case.
He was born in Dallas and is an alumnus of Texas Tech University. He began dating Kirsten Dunst in 2016. They became engaged in January 2017. In May 2018, he and Kirsten welcomed a son named Ennis. They welcomed their second son, James Robert, in May 2021.
He appeared alongside his fellow Friday Night Lights co-star Taylor Kitsch in the 2012 film Battleship.