Schoedsack entered the film industry as a cameraman for Keystone. He served with the U.S. Signal Corps during World War I. After the war, he took on several journalistic assignments and later helped relief efforts in Poland following the Armistice. From 1926, Schoedsack worked in tandem with an old army acquaintance, Captain
Merian C. Cooper, under contract to Paramount on the documentary dramas
Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925) and
Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927), shot respectively in Persia (Iran) and in Siam (Thailand). After going solo on another documentary,
Rango (1931), filmed in Sumatra, Schoedsack was hired by RKO from 1932 to 1935 to direct documentaries, starting with
The Most Dangerous Game (1932). He then worked (uncredited) with Cooper on
King Kong (1933), and later directed the (unofficial) sequel
Mighty Joe Young (1949) with the same production team. Schoedsack's sparse output as a director also includes the classic live action/miniature science-fiction drama
Dr. Cyclops (1940).