Arcangeli was discovered in 1979 by photographer Helmut Newton in Venice, Italy, where he used to live: some of the photographs made the covers of international magazines. Arcangeli became a fashion model during the 1980s, and he was called by Federico Fellini at Cinecittà Studios in Rome for a screen test to play the young lead of a movie that eventually was unfortunately never made. However, the actor later worked in Fellini's Intervista (1987), playing himself at the time of that first screen test. Arcangeli did make his acting debut in the Italian-Japanese film Eden no sono (1980), and continued to appear in a number of films during the 1980s and 1990s, among them İyi Asker (1982) directed by Franco Brusati, Credo (1983) directed in France by Jacques Deray, Il fantasma di Sodoma (1988) directed by Lucio Fulci and Un amore di donna (1988) directed by Nelo Risi. He appeared in the historical drama Francesco (1989) directed by Liliana Cavani, starring Mickey Rourke, played in the well-received Tinto Brass softcore comedy Paprika (1991) and in the thriller Venerdì nero (1993) directed by Aldo Lado. At the same time the actor worked in several stage productions with directors such as Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, Luca Ronconi, Lev Dodin, Giancarlo Sepe, Jonathan Miller, and others.

Throughout the 1990s, Arcangeli kept busy working in various films and television projects. He had starring roles in L'ultimo volo all'inferno (1990), in Rito d'amore (1989), in Demoni 3 (1991) directed by Umberto Lenzi, Belle da morire (1992), L'urlo della verità (1992), directed by Stelvio Massi, Albert Savarus (1993) based on a novel by Honoré de Balzac, Estasi (1993), and Delitti a luce rossa (1996). He also played Helmut in the TV series Le ragazze di Piazza di Spagna (1998) directed by José María Sánchez. He was cast in Red Silk (1999) by Jess Franco, Il conte di Melissa (2001), Incubus (2002) and L'acqua... il fuoco (2003) directed in Luxembourg by Luciano Emmer. Arcangeli moved to the United States, where he already had citizenship, and was immediately cast as Popo in the Showtime/Viacom TV series Zalman King's ChromiumBlue.com (2002), and then played darker or more complex roles, such as Carlton, his first American antagonist opposite actor Jeffrey Wright in the thriller Sin's Kitchen (2004) directed by Fabien Pruvot. Arcangeli has since worked in several other independent films: Gameface (2007) directed by James Rhodimer, the thriller The Seer (2007) directed by Luigi Desole, in Kurando Mitsutake's Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf (2009). In 2009 Arcangeli founded his film production company Empire Films,inc., and he produced and starred in House of Flesh Mannequins (2009) directed by Domiziano Cristopharo, Virus X (2010), and The Ghostmaker (2012) both released in the United States by Lions Gate Films through Grindstone Entertainment, but also executive produced the comedy Scenes from a Gay Marriage (2012) in the same year.

In 2013, along with his production company Empire Films' new business partner, Aaron Benore, and with Jake Barsha of Right Hook Films, Arcangeli co-executive produced the TV miniseries The Bathroom Diaries (2014) in which he plays Snake, and starred in the feature film The Brides of Sodom (2013) directed by Creep Creepersin. He most recently appeared as Chaka in the second season of the TV series Femme Fatales (2011), in Giorgio Serafini's crime thriller investigation Pusu (2013), in the futuristic thriller written and directed by Paul Hough, The Human Race (2013), played the heavy Larry in Ivan Zuccon's psychological horror Wrath of the crows (2013), is to appear also in a drama directed by Everett Lewis, Territory (2016), while there are a whole new slate of projects announced as completed, or in production by Empire Films, such as Orgy of the Damned (2010), the art-house thriller Travel Well, Kamikaze (2013) ready to be presented on the film festival circuit, but Empire Films (www.empirefilms.net) has also several other projects in active production with Arcangeli also set to star in a few.