[1][2] Walker-Leawere hails from Ruatoria, in the Gisborne Region in the northeastern corner of New Zealand's North Island.
[6] Before he had even played a single game of Mitre 10 Cup for the Lions, he was called into the Hurricanes wider training squad for the final weeks of the 2016 Super Rugby season.
Meanwhile, in November 2017, the Hurricanes announced that Walker-Leawere had signed a two-year deal with the franchise, and named him in their squad for the 2018 Super Rugby season.
[11][12] He missed the first part of the season as he was initially recovering from shoulder reconstruction surgery and then suffered a knee injury.
[15] The following year, he was named in the New Zealand Secondary Schools team for a three-match international series in Australia.
He was named in the squad for the 2017 Oceania Rugby Under 20 Championship, which that year consisted of tests against Australia, Fiji and Samoa.
[22] In 2018, Walker-Leawere - who is of Ngāti Porou descent - was a member of the Māori All Blacks squad that toured the United States, Brazil and Chile.