He was born in Amsterdam as the son of the then mayor, Cornelis Hooft.
As a poet, he was influenced by his Renaissance contemporaries in France and Italy.
He founded the Muiderkring, a literary society located at his home, the castle of Muiden in which he got to live due to his appointment as sheriff of that same town.
A prolific writer of plays, poems and letters, Hooft concentrated from 1618 onwards on writing his history of the Netherlands (Nederlandsche historiën), inspired by Roman historian Tacitus. He focussed primarily on the Eighty Years' War.
He died in The Hague.