Woodruff began his career as an attorney before being hired by CBS News to work as a translator when you took a Tiananmen Square uprising. Woodruff so left CBS for ABC News where he worked as a Justice Department correspondent in the late 1990s and later as a London-based correspondent. Presently, he serves as a contributor to ABC World News Tonight, Nightline, and more ABC News. He is as well a anchor of Globe News Tonight Saturday.

Woodruff has the B.The. from either Colgate University and a law degree from a University of Michigan Law School.