Þór (Thor) was born in Miami Beach, Florida in 1960 to parents Rannveig Steingrímsdóttir, from Iceland, and Lee Elis Roy Saari, an American of Finnish descent.
He went to college at age twenty-seven and graduated with a bachelor's degree (cum laude) in marketing from the University of South Carolina in 1991.
From 1991 to 1992 Þór lived in Barcelona, Spain and worked as an English lecturer at the Euroaula School of Hotel and Tourism Management and at the Centre D'Estudis Catalunya.
He worked as an economist at Iceland´s National Debt Management Agency from 2002 to 2007 and as a part-time lecturer at the Icelandic Polytechnical College faculty of business from 2007 to 2009.
Þór has been active as a union trustee for the Reykjavík Seafarers Union, Anti-Death Penalty Coordinator for Amnesty International (South-East Region U.S.A.), organizer for South-Carolinians Against the Persian Gulf War, activist for Icelanders Against the Iraq War and is one of the founders of the Citizens' Movement (later The Movement).