Metastasis-associated protein 1 (MTA1) is an emerging transcriptional co-regulator and was found to be aberrantly expressed in different types of cancers. MTA1 has been reported to regulate multiple cancer-related signalling pathways leading to tumour progression and metastasis. Recently, MTA1 was also implicated in cancer metabolism, where it was found to regulate the 'Warburg effect' to drive breast cancer cell invasion. Overall, the functional dynamism of MTA1 can be attributed to its dual co-regulatory effects in regulating a diverse array of target genes involved in cell proliferation, DNA damage repair, angiogenesis, invasion, migration, metastasis, and metabolism in different types of cancers. In this review, we have attempted to provide a brief summary of MTA1 as a modulator of the hallmarks of cancer.