Born and raised in New Mexico, Forrest Goodluck began acting in his eighth grade production of "A Charlie Brown Christmas." His love of the craft eventually led to him to casting director Rene Haynes, who was known for working with Native Americans in such films as "Dances With Wolves" (1990) and the Twilight Saga. Haynes cast the young Goodluck in the Chris Eyre film "Man Called Buffalo" which didn't make it to production, as well as "Jane Got A Gun" starring Natalie Portman, which also fell through when director Lynne Ramsay left the project and Goodluck's role was eliminated from the script. The first produced film in which Goodluck appeared was the Alejandro Gonzáles-Iñárritu film "The Revenant" (2015). In the critically lauded film, Goodluck played Hawk, the son of Leonardo DiCaprio's Hugh Glass.