Unable to playback photoshop actions for "Select and Mask" and "Select Subject"

You are right, if I record the action again and just do "select subject", it records successfully and plays back successfully. The error I reported earlier was because I simply delete the "select and mask" from my previous record and attempted to run "select subject".

I guess the next question is how can I remove the background without using "select and mask"?

The screenshot that you showed earlier had a transparent canvas, nothing to select.

Do you have a viable image open when running the action?

I have recorded Select Subject into an action and it plays back fine if the image can be selected. I have also used the action panel "insert menu command" to insert Select Subject without recording and it too works fine in playback.

If you are sure that the image content is selectable (pixel data), then you can see if resetting preferences clears the issue.

If I run the action without "select and mask", it shows the same "Could not complete the command because of a program error". The only difference is the image is unaltered.

I am guessing that select and mask is creating problems for select subject.

What if you just run select subject by itself?