Hodson was born in Masterton, where he grew up on his family's hill-country farm.
[2] He graduated from the Victoria University of Wellington in 1966 with a Bachelor of Laws degree.
[4] In 1983, Hodson became a partner in Macalister Mazengarb Parkin & Rose in Wellington, before commencing practice as a barrister sole in 1991, where he specialised in medical and military law.
[6] Hodson served in the Territorial Force (reserve) of the New Zealand Army, retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 1992.
In 1992, he married fellow judge and barrister Lowell Goddard, who has a daughter from her first marriage to Sir John Scott, 5th Baronet, in 1969.