Describe how a non-zero force can act on an object over a displacement and yet do no work

I don't think it can.

-- When an object moves around a closed path, the total amount
of work that gravity does on it is zero.  But so is the displacement
around the closed path.

-- When an electric charge moves around a closed path, the total
amount of work that electrostatic force does on it is zero.  But so
is the displacement around the closed path.

-- If the force on the object is always perpendicular to the object's
motion during the object's displacement, then that force does no
work.

If this is the answer you had in mind, then I must say the question is
a shrewd bit of implied equivocation ... the displacement belongs to
the object, but the distance through which the force acts is zero.

The earths atmosphere is made up of nitrogen and oxygensolids turning into gases is called sublimation.