The handsome, curly-haired Walsh was a regular, winning presence in film and television for nearly a decade and half before at last rocketing to stardom pushing age 40 as one of the often ethically challenged plastic surgeon partners of the adult, edgy cable drama "Nip/Tuck." Born in Los Angeles while his parents—both Foreign Service employees—were passing through on their way to the U.S. embassy in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia, Walsh grew up in East Africa, India and Indonesia until the age of 10, when the family returned to a suburban Virginia community near Washington, D.C., where he began acting professionally while still in high school, making his debut in the Arena Stage production of "Undiscovered Country." Attending the University of Virginia as an English major, Walsh spent most of his time in local productions of "Curse of the Starving Class", "Our Town" and "Romeo and Juliet", among others. After graduation, he left for NYC, where he soon landed his TV debut (billing himself as 'Charlie Walsh'), in a CBS Schoolbreak Special, "Soldier Boys" (1987), playing opposite James Earl Jones. He followed this up with a small role in "Chameleons" (NBC, 1989).
Walsh made his feature debut in the comedy "Loverboy" (1989, this time as 'Charles Hunter Walsh'). After playing the boyfriend of Allie's daughter on "Kate & Allie" (CBS), the actor finally settled on the professional name 'Dylan Walsh' and nabbed a role in the drama series "Gabriel's Fire" (ABC, 1990-91), as an attorney's assistant, again opposite James Earl Jones. He also appeared in the miniseries "Telling Secrets" (ABC, 1993) and the TV-movies "Radio Inside" (Showtime, 1994, as a youth who loses his girlfriend to his brother) and as an L.A.-to-Alaska transplant in "Arctic Blue" (HBO, 1995). Walsh's film work picked up steam in the early 1990s with John Boorman's drama "Where the Heart Is" and as the title character's groom in Alan Alda's "Betsy's Wedding" (both 1990). He was next seen in such higher profile films as Robert Benton's "Nobody's Fool" (1994), as Paul Newman's neglected son, and "Congo" (1995), in which he starred as a primatologist on an exhibition gone awry. He followed as the rigid husband of a woman (Joanna Going) suffering from multiple sclerosis in "Eden" (1996), and was also among the cast of the ensemble drama "Brooklyn South" (CBS, 1997-98).
Over the next several years, Walsh labored regularly as a leading man in a series of B-list films and telepics of middling distinction, occasionally appearing in supporting roles in major studio productions such as "We Were Soldiers" (2002) and "Blood Work" (2002) and a recurring role on the WB series "Everwood" in 2002. Finally, in 2003, the actor landed his career-defining role, playing the always conflicted Miami plastic surgeon Sean McNamara in the critically lauded cable drama "Nip/Tuck" (f/x, 2003 - ). Prior to being cast, Walsh was sitting in an L.A. coffee shop when he was approached by series creator Ryan Murphy, who had recently seen Walsh excel on a mediocre TV movie and, remembering his strong work in "Nobody's Fool," decided to write the McNamara character with Walsh in mind. Walsh wasn't sure whether to believe Murphy, but he quickly had the "Nip/Tuck" pilot script in hand and, four auditions later, landed the role. After wrapping up season three of “Nip/Tuck” and earning a doubled-salary for season four, Walsh then landed a costarring role in “The Lake House” (2006), a sappy romantic drama remade from the South Korean film “Il Mare” (2000) about two lovers (Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock) who trade letters while living in the same idyllic lake house—only one exists two years into the future. He gave a good performance as a buttoned-down lawyer and ex-boyfriend opposite Bullock’s Chicago doctor.