Eszter first emerged as a child member of the avant-garde Squat Theatre troupe before making her cinematic debut in 1984 in Director Jim Jarmusch's independent film Stranger Than Paradise. She appeared in the 1990 film Bail Jumper. Roles in The Linguini Incident, Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog and Steve Buscemi's Trees Lounge followed.

In 1985 she made her TV debut in Miami Vice. She played Dorothy Bain in the episode "Buddies" which aired November 1, 1985. In 2014 Balint appeared as Amia, a violin-playing Hungarian love interest for Louis C.K. on the latter's FX sitcom, Louie.

Balint has appeared on recordings by Michael Gira's Angels of Light, Marc Ribot's Los Cubanos Postizos and John Lurie's Marvin Pontiac's Greatest Hits, Dayna Kurtz, and the Swans. She was a featured guest member of Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog touring Europe throughout 2009 and is featured on their 2013 release "Your Turn."

In 2015, Balint released a new critically acclaimed album Airless Midnight, her first since 2004's Mud again produced by JD Foster. In the same year Paste Magazine premiered Balint's first official music video, "Trouble You Don't See." Josh Jackson wrote: "Paste named Eszter Balint an Artist to watch back in 2004 after she released her second album Mud. And while she stepped back from music to focus on parenting soon after, she’s delivered on that promise with this year’s long-awaited follow-up Airless Midnight, which comes on the heels of a recurring role as a Louis C.K.’s love interest in the most recent season of Louie."