Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Vince began acting due to a mistake; a computer error in his high school registration scheduled him in an acting class, a subject which Vince has never left.

He made his film debut in Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law, but his scenes wound up on the cutting room floor. He had prominent supporting roles in a number of major films, including a turn as a dimwitted Ku Klux Klan member in Mississippi Burning, Lee Bowers in JFK, and the main character's best friend in Nobody's Fool. He had his first lead role in James Mangold's independent film Heavy, playing a sweet, silent overweight cook harboring a crush on a waitress (Liv Tyler).

Vince often alternates roles of both heroic and villainous characters, like a lovable small town pub owner in Beautiful Girls, a serial killer with multiple personalities in Identity (a second collaboration with director Mangold) and a pompous sheriff in Nurse Betty. Vince also played a Southern cop in Angel Heart and Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers.

Vince received an Emmy Award in 1997 for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his turn as serial killer Clifford Banks during the second season of the television series Murder One. More recently he appeared in the movie Constantine. Other film titles include the neo-noir China Moon and the psychological horror film Jacob's Ladder.

Additionally, Vince has made guest appearances on numerous TV shows, ranging from The X-Files, Miami Vice, Quantum Leap, Chicago Hope, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Highlander in the Season 4 episode "The Innocent" as a mentally handicapped Immortal named Mikey Bellows. He also had a guest role playing a 600 lb. patient in Fox's medical drama House.