Early in his career, Epps was most often cast in the roles of troubled teens and/or athletes. He made his feature film debut with rapper Tupac Shakur as the star of cinematographer Ernest Dickerson's directorial film debut "Juice". Epps followed up his performance in "Juice" as a running back in the college football drama "The Program" alongside James Caan. Epps starred in the film "Deadly Voyage", and won the best actor award at the Monte Carlo Television Festival for portraying Kingsley Ofusu in this true story about African stowaways. The following year, he switched to baseball as co-star of "Major League II", taking over the role of Willie Mays Hayes from originator Wesley Snipes. His next athletic endeavor was playing a track and field star in John Singleton's "Higher Learning", a look at the politics and racial tensions of college life.