Matuszak acted professionally in the 1980s, making appearances in feature films and on television, often portraying football players or gentle giants. His first major role was in the 1979 movie North Dallas Forty as a football player. He appeared in the movies Caveman, The Ice Pirates, One Man Force, and One Crazy Summer, but is frequently remembered as deformed captive Sloth in The Goonies, the make-up for which took five hours to apply. Matuszak's character Sloth wears an Oakland Raiders shirt in some scenes. He had numerous guest appearances in TV shows such as Perfect Strangers, M*A*S*H, The Dukes of Hazzard, Hunter, Silver Spoons, The A-Team, 1st & Ten, Miami Vice and Cheers.