Born on August 31, 1981 in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, Joshua Close started his professional acting career when he landed a role in K:19: The Widowmaker as Viktor Bokov, the assistant to Harrison Ford's character, the Captain of a Russian submarine.

Close attended Iroquois Ridge High School, where he was introduced to the world of acting during his senior year of high school, and joined the advanced drama program and a local theater troupe. At the time, he was cast as the star of his senior year play, A Willful Act, where he played a 60s playboy. He graduated in 2000.

Later Close attended Circle in the Square Theater School in New York and eventually got his first paying job as a dancer for the Boomtang Boys. From being dancer, he gradually progressed as an actor, landing roles on films such as K-19: The Widowmaker, Twists, a Canadian independent modern day Oliver Twist, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, where he worked alongside Laura Linney, the comedy Full of It, George Romero's Diary of the Dead, Third Eye, At Home at the End of the World and The Man Who Lost Himself.

On the small screen, Close was also cast on the ABC series Life as We Knot It, the HBO war miniseries, The Pacific, and the crime series The Unusuals.