BuddyPress.org

I’m answering the first post to this thread.

You can’t use an echo’d parameter (eg. the_author_id()), that is why your function isn’t displaying the xprofile field.

Parameters need to be returned, so use get_the_author_id() instead.

Example:

<?php echo xprofile_get_field_data( 'About me', get_the_author_id()) ?>