At the age of seven, Hall started his career in commercials. He was the Honeycomb cereal kid and appeared in several commercials for toys and Bounty. His stage debut was in 1977, when he was cast as the young Steve Allen in Allen's semi-autobiographical play "The Wake". He went on to appear in the Lincoln Center Festival's production of "St. Joan of the Microphone", and in a play with Woody Allen. In 1980, he made his screen debut in the Emmy-winning TV movie "The Gold Bug", in which he played the young Edgar Allan Poe. In 1981 he started as Huck Finn in "" but it was not until the release of the 1982 Kenny Rogers film "Six Pack" that he gained real notice.