Hurley played in heavy metal and hardcore punk bands including Racetraitor, Killtheslavemaster, Project Rocket, xFor Death or Gloryx, The Kill Pill, and Arma Angelus. In 1999, he was a guest drummer on Vegan Reich’s “Jihad” EP.

Hurley joined Fall Out Boy in 2003 after the band’s debut mini-LP Fall Out Boy’s Evening Out With Your Girlfriend and recorded Take This to Your Grave (2003). Hurley had been friends with bassist Pete Wentz since he was 16, and he first filled in on a touring position as drummer for Fall Out Boy before joining the band as full-time drummer. Fall Out Boy is the fourth band Hurley has been in with Wentz. With Fall Out Boy, Hurley has achieved major commercial success and toured the world.

During Fall Out Boy’s hiatus from 2009–2013, Hurley was the drummer for the heavy metal band The Damned Things, which featured members of Anthrax, Fall Out Boy and Every Time I Die and released debut album Ironiclast. He has also played in the Milwaukee hardcore band Enabler. It released a full album entitled All Hail The Void in Summer 2012. Hurley is also part of other rock bands.

In late 2012, Hurley began playing drums in Milwaukee-based straight edge hardcore band, FocusedXMinds. It was rumored that the return of Fall Out Boy would end his time with the band, but Hurley confirmed on Twitter on March 12 that “I am in it for life.”

On February 4, 2013, Fall Out Boy unexpectedly announced their return, along with an album and single with which all four members, including Hurley, contributed. April 12 of the same year, the band released a new album entitled, Save Rock and Roll, featuring the lead single “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up),” and dates for a new tour. The band played their first show in over three years on the night of February 4 in Chicago. ‘Save Rock and Roll’ peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 154,000 copies in its first week, becoming the band’s 4th consecutive top 10 album. With Fall Out Boy, Hurley toured heavily throughout 2013 and 2014 on the album, selling out arenas worldwide with bands Paramore on the Monumentour. In October 2013, they released a new EP, PAX AM Days which they recorded in a two-day session with producer Ryan Adams.

Sixth studio album American Beauty/American Psycho was released to become the band’s third Billboard 200 No. 1 album, debuting with 192,000 first week sales and 218,000 equivalent album units. The album was preceded by the triple Platinum top 10 single Centuries. Uma Thurman was released to mainstream radio on April 14, 2014 and peaked at 22 on the ‘Billboard’ Top 100, and were certified as Platinum in August 2015.

In 2016 Hurley started a vegan straight edge hardcore band called SECT composed of Chris Colohan (Cursed, Burning Love, Left for Dead and The Swarm) on vocals, James Chang (Catharsis, Undying) and Scott Crouse (Earth Crisis, Path of Resistance) on guitar, and Steve Hart (Day Of Suffering) on bass. They have released two albums so far.

In April 2017, Fall Out Boy released Young and Menace, the lead single for the seventh studio album. The band’s seventh album Mania was officially released January 19, 2018 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making it the band’s third consecutive and fourth chart-topping debut overall.

In 2018 Fall Out Boy headlined Wrigley Field in the band’s hometown of Chicago, marking a milestone in their career as their first headline show at a stadium.