Nurtured in the City Kids program as a youth in New York City, Jordan was cast in a Coke commercial when he was 14 and continued to act through high school. He hosted the PBS teen series In the Mix (1991) and appeared in the Touchtone/Disney movie Houseguest (1995) with Phil Hartman and Sinbad.

Shifting his focus to directing, Jordan attended New York University's Tisch School for the Arts, where he received the Martin Scorsese Filmmaker's Scholarship. After graduation, he directed and produced the independent feature film Goat on Fire and Smiling Fish (1999), which won the Discovery Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, was presented by scorsese, and was acquired for theatrical distribution by IDP.

The inspiration for Brooklyn Lobster (2005) came from his own family's lobster shop in Brooklyn, New York. The feature stars Danny Aiello and Jane Curtin, and is again presented by Scorsese.

Jordan is currently in pre-production on a new feature, "Jack's Offspring."