His parents are from military backgrounds and he has an older brother Hu Dong (胡东), who's also an acclaimed Chinese actor, model and singer.

After high school, Hu attended the Zhejiang Provincial Athletic Institute, where he majored in health education and sports psychology.

Hu's professional athletic career came to an end when he suffered a back injury due to overtraining in 1990 at the age of 19, and became a fashion model soon after.

In 1993, filling in last minute for Valentino's Beijing World Trade Centre Show, Hu's outstanding performance won worldwide recognition.

In late 1994, he was signed by the Hong Kong United Artists Entertainment Company who helped him publish his first album and gave him his first acting roles in the TV dramas The New York Storm (1996) and The Everlasting Dream (1997).

In 2008, he returned to the East Asian entertainment scene after accepting the leading role in the French-Hong Kong co-production, The Back (2010), produced by the Oscar-winning French director/producer Luc Besson and directed by the internationally renowned Chinese 6th generation director, Liu Bingjian.