He spent his first year on a citrus estate, "Denlynian", in Beitbridge, Zimbabwe, which was bought by his grandfather Ian Ferguson in the 1960s and ultimately employed up to 300 people.

[1] When Pocock was a child, his parents moved north to Gweru and joined his paternal grandfather and uncle on a 2,800-hectare (6,900-acre) mixed farm, growing vegetables and flowers for export and also running cattle.

They were soon given a notice of compulsory acquisition requiring them to vacate their property within 90 days, after which they stayed in a family holiday home in Port Alfred, South Africa, for eight months.

[10] Pocock made appearances for Australian Schoolboys and Australia A in the 2007 IRB Pacific Nations Cup,[11] earning man of the match multiple times in the tournament.

Pocock made his test debut in Hong Kong against New Zealand in late 2008, and then played against Italy and the Barbarians on the Wallabies spring tour.

That same year he also captained the Australian Under 20s at the Junior World Championships in Wales, and was then awarded the Emirates Western Force captaincy for the development tour of England.

Pocock had earlier started the year by scoring his first try for his adopted country during the 55–7 win over the Barbarians in a non-cap match in Sydney.

As a credit to his improving performance in the game Pocock replaced longstanding Wallaby openside flanker George Smith, late in the 2009 Tri-Nations.

In addition he was recognised with the Australia's Choice Wallaby of the Year and awarded the Rugby Union Players Association (RUPA) Medal of Excellence.

[31] In December 2021, Pocock announced he would be running as a candidate for the Senate, representing the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) in the forthcoming federal election.

He prosecuted an agenda to tackle corruption in government and political advertising laws, as well as campaigns to increase Australia's expenditure on renewable energy and restore the rights of territories to legislate on euthanasia.

[36][37] In July 2022, Pocock opposed the Labor government's defunding of the Australian Building and Construction Commission but reversed his position to vote in favour of abolishing the ABCC in November 2022.

[38] In November 2022, Pocock successfully negotiated an amendment to create the "Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee", which would publish yearly recommendations on the adequacy of welfare payments two weeks before each federal budget, in exchange for passing Labor's changes to industrial relations reforms.

[39][40] Ahead of the 2023 Australian federal budget, Pocock agreed with the committee's recommendation for a substantial increase to the JobSeeker Payment as a first priority, and criticised the Labor government for not "do[ing] more to protect the most vulnerable.

[45] Thomas Emerson, who was elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly in 2024 as the leader of Independents for Canberra, was previously a member of Pocock's party.

Together with Luke O’Keefe, he ran a not-for-profit organisation, Eightytwenty Vision, that aims "to support maternal health, food and water security" in Zimbabwe.