In his first film role in 2006, aged 13, he played the lead character, Shaun, in This Is England, written and directed by Shane Meadows. On television he played the character Dizzy, a young boy mentored by Adam Solomons (Luke Treadaway), in the 2006 BBC drama series The Innocence Project. The programme was cancelled after eight episodes due to poor ratings and negative reviews. Turgoose's character was in six of the eight episodes. But in 2008, he was again in a Shane Meadows film, Somers Town, where he co-starred in a comedy role with young Polish actor Piotr Jagiello. Both young actors shared the "Best Actor in a Narrative Feature" award at New York's Tribeca Film Festival. He was also in The Scouting Book for Boys, and appeared in This Is England '86, a 4-part TV series for Channel 4 looking at characters from This is England three years on. A year later, he appeared in the three-part series This Is England '88, aired just before Christmas 2011, and also appeared in This Is England '90, aired in 2015.

Turgoose is a supporter of Grimsby Town, although he admits that as a boy he supported Manchester United, and is a season ticket holder at his hometown club. Prior to Grimsby Town's Conference Premier play-off final against Bristol Rovers, he interviewed manager Paul Hurst, club captain Craig Disley and striker Lenell John-Lewis for Football Focus, which was aired on 16 May 2015. Also on the same day, he appeared on Pointless Celebrities, where he was paired with fellow actor Vas Blackwood. On 7 November 2015, he made his second appearance on Pointless Celebrities, where he was paired with Tyger Drew-Honey. In 2017, Turgoose appeared in the Season 7 premiere of the HBO series Game of Thrones as a Lannister soldier.