It was announced that Courtney had landed the coveted part while he was home in Australia in March promoting A Good Day to Die Hard, in which he played the son of Bruce Willis's famed character, John McClane.
At that stage Courtney told News Limited that Divergent may give him "some opportunity for different stuff with make-up and hair ... I'll embrace it".
He has certainly done just that - he can be seen sporting neck tattoos, a pierced eyebrow, mohawk and black punk earrings in a photo that shows him on the Divergent set.
Courtney plays Eric, one of the film's big baddies - a merciless senior member of one of the five factions to which humans must belong in the future.
"I'll be walking back down the more antagonistic path with the role I'm playing, which is always fun," said Courtney, who also played a bad guy in the Tom Cruise-led action flick Jack Reacher. It is Eric's faction Dauntless that the movie's heroine, Tris (Shailene Woodley of The Descendants) chooses to join - angering Eric but leading to romance between Tris and Eric's hated rival, Four (played by James).
Divergent, yet another adaptation of a series of best-selling young-adult novels (written by Veronica Roth), is currently shooting in Chicago. The movie will open in Australia on March 20, 2014.
While here last March, Courtney was pretty tight-lipped about the "fresh news" and what role he would play in the "exciting" project. He did say that the director was one reason he signed on.
"Neil Burger's done some wonderful visual stuff. He had this film Limitless that came out a couple of years ago with Bradley Cooper and I really liked what he did with that. He also directed The Illusionist which was another cool film. I really like his approach with this.
"The world is something I've not explored. I think it's a really cool story and has potential to be something really wonderful."
Divergent also stars Kate Winslet, Ashley Judd and Maggie Q.
"The books are wonderful and it's got some wonderful other people involved, so it's exciting," Courtney said.
Sydney-born Courtney and his girlfriend, former Neighbours actor Gemma Pranita, are now based in LA.
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