In 2004, Worthington received Australia’s highest film award for his lead performance in Somersault. Worthington was born to English parents in Godalming, Surrey, in southeastern England, and moved to Perth, Western Australia when he was six months old. He began working on construction and odd jobs, eventually settling in Sydney. Worthington went on to act in a number of Australian movies and TV series; including leading roles in Dirty Deeds (2002) and Gettin’ Square (2003). Worthington won the AFI Award for Best Lead Actor for his role in Somersault. It is a creature-feature film with a 100% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes in Terminator Salvation, Worthington plays cyborg Marcus Wright who assists the humans despite their suspicions of him.

He attended John Curtin College of the Arts, a school specialising in the dramatic arts located in Fremantle, Western Australia, where he studied drama but failed to graduate and dropped out. The same year, he guest starred in television series: JAG, Water Rats and Blue Heelers. Dirty Deeds was a critical and financial success, earning A$5,034,142 at the box office in Australia. The film went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time, grossing more than US$2.730 billion ($2.8 billion adjusted for inflation) in box-office receipts worldwide. He provided voice work for Captain Alex Mason, the most significant character in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops.