Already as a student, Tyl started to be active in theatre and finally left school to become a member of the Hilmer traveling theatre company. When the company disbanded after two years of journeying around the countryside, he returned to Prague and got a job as a clerk in an infantry regiment's office. In his free time, he wrote theatre plays and worked as an actor at the Estates Theatre. Due to his abilities, he could leave his job in the military in 1842, as he was given a full-time job at the Estates Theatre, where he became the director, organizer, and playwright of the Czech ensemble in the otherwise mainly German theatre.