I got around this issue by making my actor a AStaticMeshActor. I then went through the process of loading up a material and then I was able to use the SetMaterial function from AStaticMeshActor’s class and easily set my material there.
static ConstructorHelpers::FObjectFinder<UMaterial> BallMaterial(TEXT("Blueprint'/Game/Materials/BallMaterial.BallMaterial'"));
m_BallMaterial = UMaterialInstanceDynamic::Create((UMaterial*)BallMaterial.Object, this);
StaticMeshComponent->SetMaterial(0, m_BallMaterial);
However, I’m also looking at a way to change a texture of that material, but haven’t come across any methods for that yet.