Hood was born in Adelaide on 31 May 1904, the son of William Percy Hood and Alexandrina Douglas. His father was the head of the Tasmanian branch of the Australian Mutual Provident Society and Hood was educated at Kyne College in Adelaide (1915–1917) and The Hutchins School in Sandy Bay, Tasmania (1918–1921). After taking a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Tasmania, at age 21 Hood's academic success was recognised in 1926 with the award of being Tasmania's recipient of the Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford. Resident at Magdalen College, Oxford, Hood studied under C. S. Lewis and took a First in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1929 and a Bachelor of Arts in 1930.
