He was a batting all-rounder whose elegance at the crease drew comparisons with former South African captain Hansie Cronje. De Bruyn began his career with Transvaal cricket team (later Gauteng cricket team). However, his career only really started to prosper when he joined Easterns in 2002.

In 2003–04 he became only the second player in South African cricket, after Barry Richards, to score 1000 domestic first-class runs in a season. De Bruyn's Test debut came against India in November 2004. He played in both Tests, scoring 83 in the first innings of the first Test and kept his place in the squad for the home series against England but was subsequently dropped for the return of Jacques Kallis.

de Bruyn signed for Worcestershire as a Kolpak player. Without much success, moved to Somerset where he captained the team in the Friends Provident T20 cup. In April 2014 he announced his retirement from all forms of the game.