During an interview with Kevin Smith on the podcast Fatman on Batman, Trank discussed the origins of his career at length. He attributed his YouTube video "Stabbing at Leia's 22nd Birthday", which became very popular overnight after its release, as a significant breakthrough point for his career. Following this, Trank worked on the 2007 Spike TV drama The Kill Point as a Writer, Director and Editor. In 2009, Trank edited the independent film Big Fan, starring Patton Oswalt. He was also credited as a co-producer and had a small acting role in the film.

In 2011, Trank directed his first feature film, Chronicle. It was released on February 3, 2012 by 20th Century Fox and has grossed over $125 million worldwide. Chronicle, made for a budget of $12 million, was received positively by critics, earning an 85% score on Rotten Tomatoes. With Chronicle released at the age of 27, Trank became the youngest Director to open a film at number one at the US box office. He is followed by Steven Spielberg (28, with Jaws) and James Cameron (30, with The Terminator). After the release of Chronicle, Trank was linked to Sony's Spider-Man spin-off, Venom, Warner Bros.'s The Red Star, and Sony's film adaptation of the video game Shadow of the Colossus; however, Trank turned down those film projects.

Trank was born in Los Angeles. In early October 2013, he married Screenwriter Krystin Ver Linden. His father, Richard Trank, is a documentary filmmaker and Academy Award winner. He is Jewish.

In June 2014, it was announced that Trank would direct a stand-alone Star Wars film, but left the project less than a year later. Trank indicated this was a personal decision, but several outlets stated that he was dismissed from the project due to issues during production of Fantastic Four, primarily a lack of communication with the film's producers, and that Lucasfilm had decided to pursue another Director. Trank told the Los Angeles Times in an interview that the reason he left the film was because he wanted to do something original and smaller-scale, due to the amount of online scrutiny he received during the filming of Fantastic Four.

Trank directed the 2015 reboot of Fantastic Four, which was released in August 2015. The movie was critically panned. It received a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 27 out of 100 rating from Metacritic. Trank became the subject of controversy when he posted and quickly deleted a message on Twitter prior to the release of the film before, apparently blaming the poor reviews on changes imposed by the studio, having originally cut a completely different movie claiming would've been much better. Equally dissatisfied with the final film, actor Toby Kebbell, who worked with Trank on the film, supported Trank's claim.

As reported in late October 2016, Trank wrote and will direct his original Al Capone biopic, Fonzo, with Tom Hardy set to star. Fonzo is scheduled to be released in 2018.