Hogan's directorial debut was the short film Getting Wet, made in 1984. This film won him an AACTA Award for Best Short Fiction Film. He then went on to direct minor films. In 1991, he was the assistant Director of the Australian film Proof. In the early 1990s, he wrote for several television series, including The Flying Doctors in 1991 and for Lift Off in 1992.

His first big hit was the 1994 Australian film Muriel's Wedding, which helped launch the careers of actors Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths. He both wrote and directed this film, and was nominated for Best Director at the AACTA Awards. The success of the film also led him to be chosen by Julia Roberts to direct his 1997 American debut My Best Friend's Wedding, which also starred Cameron Diaz and Dermot Mulroney.

Hogan followed this with the comedy Unconditional Love (which was filmed in 1999 but not released until 2003), and 2003's big budget adaptation of Peter Pan, starring Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook, Jeremy Sumpter as Peter Pan and Rachel Hurd-Wood as Wendy. The following year he directed a pilot for a remake of the cult soap opera Dark Shadows, which was not picked up for broadcast, and created the story for the 2008 musical film The American Mall. He then directed Confessions of a Shopaholic (starring Isla Fisher), an adaptation of the novel The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic.

In 2012, he reunited with Muriel star Collette for the comedy Mental. Hogan will direct an adaptation of Blue Balliett's book Chasing Vermeer.