Hunt was born at Lambeth Hospital, Kennington, on November 1, 1966, and was raised in Shere, Surrey, in the constituency he represents in Parliament.
He is the eldest son of Admiral Sir Nicholas Hunt, who was a Commander in the Royal Navy at the time and was sent to work for the Director of Naval Plans under the newly formed Ministry of Defence, and his wife, Meriel Eve née Givan (now Lady Hunt), the daughter of Major Henry Cooke Givan.
After retiring from the navy, his father worked in NHS management, and his mother was a nurse in the 1950s and 1960s. He became interested in Conservative politics while at university when he met David Cameron and Boris Johnson.
He was an active member of the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) and was elected president in 1987.
During this time, he made a curious error regarding his wife’s nationality. During an official visit to China as Foreign Secretary, he referred to his Chinese wife as “Japanese” when speaking with a member of the Chinese government.
Mr. Hunt told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, “My wife is Japanese, my wife is Chinese.” That is a bad error to make.