After university, Joffé joined Granada Television as a trainee director in 1973, where he directed episodes of Coronation Street, Sam, The Stars Look Down, Crown Court, Bill Brand, and Headmaster.

In 1977, producer Tony Garnett was commissioned by the BBC to direct the play The Spongers within BBCs Play for Today series. He informed the BBC drama department that he wanted to hire Roland Joffé as director, but was told that Joffé did not possess BBC clearance and was regarded a “security risk”. The reason was that Joffé had attended some Workers’ Revolutionary Party meetings in the early 1970s, although he never became a party member. He explained around 1988: “I was very interested in politics at that time. But I was interested in what all the political parties were doing, not just the WRP, and I was never actively involved.” Only after Garnett threatened he would “go public”, was the veto on Joffé’s appointment withdrawn. The Spongers won the prestigious Prix Italia award.

Joffé also directed an episode in BBC’s Second City Firsts in 1977 and later directed two more plays for Play for Today: The Legion Hall Bombing (1979) and United Kingdom (1981). In 1979, he directed the TV play No, Mama, No by Verity Bargate for the ITV Playhouse series, and in 1980 he made a version of 17th century dramatist John Ford’s play ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore as a TV film for the BBC.

Since his initial acclaim, Joffé’s film career has been less successful. In 1993, he produced and partially directed a big budget adaptation of the video game Super Mario Bros.. The film struggled to make back its budget. His 1995 adaptation of The Scarlet Letter was a critical and financial disaster, and his 2007 horror film Captivity drew controversy with its advertising billboards, widely regarded as exploitative and misogynistic. He received Razzie Nominations for Worst Director for The Scarlet Letter and Captivity.

Joffé was educated at two independent schools: the Lycée français Charles de Gaulle in London, and Carmel College in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, which was Europe’s only Jewish boarding school, until it closed in 1997. He completed his formal education at the University of Manchester.

His 2011 release, There Be Dragons, garnered press attention as it dealt with the Catholic organisation Opus Dei. A movie about faith and forgiveness, There Be Dragons is a project that Joffé says has a message he’s proud to say on film. In an interview with CBN.com, he stated, “I have a very deep emotional investment in this film. I feel that I really want to stand behind what it says to us as human beings.”

In 2013 Joffé directed the Anglo-Indian historical epic romance time travel adventure film, The Lovers.