He attended an Outdoor Education Program at Algonquin College and was known as being an "adrenaline junkie" for his hobbies such as white water rafting, kayaking, free climbing, and mountain biking. He often recorded these stunts and turned them into short movies. During high school he earned the name "Hardcore Hutch" for his activities. In particular, he once acted out a hostage takeover scenario for a history class presentation which included smoke grenades, paintball guns, and fire alarms. 

Jesse's room was covered in movie posters as a child, and his interest in acting was sparked by the animated movie "The Hobbit."

"When I saw that I was like, "What is this? This is the coolest thing I've ever seen" he says in an interview with Mercy Lyman in November 2017. "Although I didn't think I was going to be an actor. I never thought I would be a filmmaker of any sort! It never dawned on me. I actually went to college for outdoor tourism and business, and I was a whitewater raft guide for about 5 years before I started acting. I thought I was just going to grow my beard out, live in the bush and go down the river everyday. But slowly I started to become more interested in it and started to pursue it more, and that's been quite the journey."

His first official audition was for the FOX TV Series Dark Angel, which he landed and played the role of a Mutant. His extensive TV Series experience includes Just Cause, Smallville, and Taken (2003), American Dreams (2002-2004), Peacemakers and Romeo! (2003), The 4400 and Tru Calling (2004), Fallen (2006), Kyle XY (2009), Hellcats (2010), True Justice (2012), Once Upon a Time (2012), Arrow (2013-2014), Almost Human (2014), and Cedar Cove (2014-2015). 

"I'm extremely happy to be able to jump around", he says in an interview. "I'd like to be the guy you see in action and then a comedy... there's so many genres."

When asked which if his character portrayals was his favorite, he responded: "That's touch! I have so many different characters and projects that I enjoy for different reasons. I'd have to say that one of my favorite characters was Bryce. He was a war veteran that used to be a rodeo cowboy and became paralyzed from the waist down and in the episode that I did, I had to learn how to ride horses. So for me, that was both an honor and a challenge because I had to take time to learn, to honor people who are paralyzed from the waist down." "So I actually got to meet with Canada's Olympic Gold Medalist and learn from her because she actually is paralyzed. So I learned about her injuries and how she deals with them and what muscles you're able to work in order to help you. I'm just scratching at the surface, but that was one of the most challenging characters I've ever played."