Born in Russellville, Alabama, Hasford joined the United States Marine Corps in 1966 and served as a combat correspondent during the Vietnam War.

Hasford attended the Clarion Workshop[3] and associated with various science fiction writers of the 1970s, including Arthur Byron Cover and David J. Skal.

[5] In 1978, Hasford attended the Milford Writer's Workshop and met veteran science fiction author Frederik Pohl, who was then an editor at Bantam Books.

Hasford had obtained borrowing privileges at Cal Poly-SLO as a California resident, using the residential address of a motel near campus and a false Social Security number.

[10] Judge Harry Woolpert of the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court scheduled the trial hearings to begin on December 5.

[17] Hasford's final novel titled A Gypsy Good Time, a hardboiled, noir detective story set in Los Angeles, was published in 1992.

Hasford, impoverished[17] and suffering from untreated diabetes, moved to the Greek island of Aegina and died there of heart failure on 29 January 1993, aged 45.