He is the son of billionarie media mogul Kerry Packer. James Packer is the Executive Chairman of Publishing And Broadcasting Ltd (PBL) which owns the Australian commercial television station Channel 9.
James Packer was a director of Australian Telecommunications company One.Tel, which was declared insolvent during May 2001. The collapse of One.Tel cost PBL AU$327 million. Packer admitted at a PBL Annual General Meeting that he had learned "painful lessons" from the collapse of One.Tel. Later at the liquidator's inquiry over the collapse he denied that he was apologising for his own personal conduct. Instead he claimed, "I was making an apology for accepting the bona fides of Mr. Rich and the executive directors of One.Tel."
In October 1999, he married swimsuit model Jodie Meares (who has since changed her first name to Jodhi). In June 2002 they separated.
Packer is friendly with American actor Tom Cruise. It has been reported by the Australian Daily Telegraph that Packer will be an extra appearing as a samurai in Cruise's film The Last Samurai.
He is a scientologist.