In 2008, Bruckner was nominated for the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award along with Gentry and Bush for The Signal.
Bruckner grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. His father is a police detective and his mother an emergency room nurse. He attended the University of Georgia along with A. J. Bowen and Jacob Gentry. The three would later collaborate with Dan Bush on The Signal (2007).
In 2008, Bruckner was nominated for the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award along with Gentry and Bush for The Signal.
With Jacob Gentry and Dan Bush, Bruckner co-wrote and co-directed The Signal. The filmmakers used their connections in Atlanta to compose a crew. The concept came from a Surrealist game called exquisite corpse, in which multiple people collaborate in order to complete an art project. When Gentry was unable to contribute to the horror anthology V/H/S (2012), he suggested Bruckner, who eventually co-wrote and directed the segment "Amateur Night". Also released in 2012, his short film Talk Show addresses the torture debate in mainstream media. Bruckner was set to direct a reboot of Friday the 13th for Paramount Pictures but was reported to have left in late 2015. He is set to direct the thriller Intrusion, based on a screenplay by L. D. Goffigan. His film Southbound premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and was picked up for distribution by the Orchard for release in 2016. In 2016, he was an executive Producer on SiREN, which was based on his V/H/S segment "Amateur Night".
