He was born in Brooklyn, New York to the son of immigrants. His father was a grocer, contractor, and builder. He attended public schools and Columbia University where he studied philosophy and graduated in 1930. He studied at Yale Drama School with George Pierce Baker. He was influenced by George Sklar. Albert wrote and saw several plays produced including, Peace on Earth in 1934 and Black Pit in 1935, about West Virginia coal miners. He turned to writing fiction including Man on a Road published in New Masses magazine in 1935. This story sparked a Congressional investigation about the dangers of silicosis to miners. He also wrote the novella, Season of Celebration, focusing on a dying man in a Bowery flophouse and The Happiest Man on Earth in 1938. These and other stories were collected and published under the title, The Way Things Are in 1938. His first novel, The Underground Stream in 1940, focuses on auto industry workers seeking to organize unions and fascistic management who resist them. He wrote 4 novels: The Cross and the Arrow in 1944. He was considered one of the Hollywood Ten in 1947 during the House Un-American Activities Committee. He refused to answer the questions and was blacklisted. He was fined and sentenced to imprisonment in 1950. He also wrote The Journey of Simon McKeever in 1949, The Citizen Writer in 1950, A Long Day in a Short Life in 1957, A Tale of One January in 1966, and Afternoon in the Jungle in 1971.

Albert Maltz is known for screenwriting films such as Pride of the Marines (1945), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay.

After serving his prison sentence, he continued to write some scripts under pseudonyms. In 1970, he received writing credit under his own name for the film Two Mules for Sister Sara, a western starring Shirley MacLaine and Clint Eastwood.