Hoffman was born in New York City to Charles and Gail Hoffman. He grew up in Roslyn Heights, New York with his brother Jeff Hoffman. He is Jewish.^[2] He graduated from The Wheatley School in Old Westbury, New York, before attending the University of Arizona, majoring in theater arts. After graduating, he moved to Los Angeles, California, to start an acting career.

Hoffman was cast in his first role, as a security guard in Conspiracy Theory, in 1997. He had some other small roles until he received a main role as Freddie Sacker on Darren Star's short-lived Wall Street series The $treet^[3] in 2000, which was pulled from the airwaves after seven episodes, but which allowed him to quit his job waiting tables and move back to New York. His subsequent TV roles included Terry Loomis on the short-lived Steven Bochco law drama Philly^[4] in 2001–2002, Jerry Best in The Bernie Mac Show (2002–2005),^[5] Patrick Van Dorn on the John Stamos comedy Jake in Progress (2004–2005)^[5] and Chase Chapman on the ABC comedy Samantha Who? (2007–2009). In 2011, he landed a starring role as Louis Litt in the USA Network series Suits, which ran until 2019.

His other TV and film work includes The Day After Tomorrow, Blood Work, Hostel, Cellular and The Condemned. He has also appeared as a guest in CSI: Miami, Chuck, The Pretender, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NCIS, Crossing Jordan, Without a Trace, The Practice, CSI: NY, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Shark, Lie to Me, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Monk, Billions, and The Mentalist.^[6]

Film edit

Television edit

• Rick Hoffman at IMDb