(I am a board certified general surgeon & I fix hernias as part of my practice)
First of all, go see a qualified physician to be sure that inguinal hernia is the correct diagnosis. There are some other (rare) things that can be confused with an inguinal hernia - and are more serious. If you indeed have an inguinal hernia, it is a straightforward and easily fixable problem. What I write below assumes it's an inguinal hernia, which is very common in young men, but do see a qualified physician to be sure.
In young people with inguinal hernias, there is usually a congenital defect that allows the hernia to develop with physical activity. Not everyone with this congenital defect gets a hernia, but if you have it and got a hernia from from lifting at work or weight lifting you would almost certainly have gotten it in military training as well.
If you have an inguinal hernia, you are DQ from all military service until it's fixed. I think there's a waiting period after the repair - maybe 3 months or so (I don't know for sure). Once it's fixed and provided you have normal healing, recovery & no complications, it's not DQ at all - in fact I don't even think it requires a waiver. The MEPS physician will check, and will be able to tell if you have one or if you've had one repaired. So don't even think about lying on your SF 88 (medical history). Again, if you've had one repaired, waited the required time and are healed up normally, you'll be good to go.
Unlike other operations, laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair is not necessarily better than open repair. Both operations are outpatient surgeries, the open repair has a little more early postoperative pain which is easily controlled with moderate strength pain pills. All general surgeons are trained in open hernia repair & it's a straightforward operation with excellent results. Laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair is more difficult to do, requires special additional training and may have a higher recurrence rate. At best, it offers the same result as an open repair, at worst the risk of a recurrence or other complication is higher. You should have a laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair only if your surgeon is very experienced with laparoscopic hernia repairs - it's a more complex operation and has a higher complication rate in the hands of an inexperienced surgeon. Most surgeons recommend laparoscopic repair only with bilateral (both side) hernias or a recurrence of a previously repaired hernia. If it were me, I would have an open repair unless I had bilateral hernias or a recurrence (I did both open and laparoscopic repairs for a long time, I do only open repairs now because I wasn't doing enough laparoscopic repairs to be comfortable that I was keeping my skills up to speed).
If you have other questions about this go ahead and ask, or PM me if you don't want to ask in public.
