He moved to France in 1959 and began to work in movies during the 1960s. In 1967, critics praised for the first movie he directed, "Soleil O". It won a Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno International Film Festival in Italy. When American movies are dubbed into French, Hondo often plays the French version of a character. For example, he played the French version of Eddie Murphy's character Donkey in "Shrek".