Hughes began his acting career in 1994 in the BBC Wales soap opera Pobol y Cwm. He went on to appear in Blood on the Dole, Casualty, Family Affairs as DI Patrick Grenham, Spooks, Take Me with Robson Green and EastEnders in January and April 2009 as Andy Jones, the adoptive father of Danielle Jones. He reprised the role in June 2016.
Hughes won a Best Actor BAFTA Cymru (or BAFTA Wales) for his appearance as Delme in Cameleon (1997), a Welsh language film. He appeared regularly in Judge John Deed as Neil Haughton and in Young Dracula as Graham Branagh. He played Harper in the TV movie Harper and Isles with Hywel Bennett and appeared in the 1998 film The Theory of FLIGHT. More recently, he appeared in the S4C drama Pen Talar and in Holby City as Sir Fraser Anderson, and has also returned to the BBC Wales soap opera Pobol y Cwm as a new character, Morgan 'Moc' Thomas, whom he played from 2012-2013. He reprised the role in 2017. In 2012, he portrayed the Politician and Welsh-language campaigner Gwynfor Evans in an S4C docu-drama, titled Gwynfor Evans: Y Penderfyniad? (The Decision?).
Hughes has run several marathons for charity, including the London Marathon in 2009.
In 2013, Hughes appeared in the S4C film Y Syrcas (The Circus) and is a regular in the bilingually-filmed detective series Y Gwyll (Hinterland). In May 2014 he appeared with Tom Jones and Katherine Jenkins in a BBC centenary production of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas.
In July 2016, he was assaulted outside a public house in Aberystwyth in a long-standing dispute about agricultural land. A father and son admitted the charge and were fined. A third man is due to stand trial after pleading not guilty.
