Just press H to hide the selection in Edit Mode and then switch to Sculpt Mode. I believe that there was a time when this didn't work, but in 2.83 and later versions this should work.
Those are the worst; problems that only happen sometimes!
What Blender version are you using?
Did you you try it with: Load Factory Settings? (Probably won#t help, but there is a slight chance that an Addon or so is causing issues...)
Is your Graphics Driver up to date!
ttobles is that 2.90.0 ? I've tried it in 2.90.1 and couldn't get it to not work. And according to this post:
https://cgcookie.com/questions/12877-hidden-faces-are-not-hidden-when-i-switched-in-sculpt-mode
this was a problem in 2.90.0. All other versions seem to work. So you'll probably have to use a different version (2.92 is stable), although I think the Blender website is down at the moment...