[6] Ross was brought up by his grandmother as his mother was "not in the best space to raise a child", and he has never met his father, who descends from the Māori iwi of Ngāti Porou.

He was raised in Manukau City, first in Papatoetoe then Pakuranga after his grandmother shifted houses so Ross, a keen swimmer, could be closer to a pool.

[7][18] In 2009, Ross led criticism of Manukau mayor Len Brown's use of council credit cards for personal spending.

Prior to the election, Ross had petitioned for a name change in the ward, which had originally been proposed to be called Te Irirangi after an historic chief.

"[25] He resigned from Auckland Council on 7 March 2011, after being elected to Parliament in a by-election, and was succeeded by Citizens & Ratepayers candidate Dick Quax.

Ross announced his candidacy on 15 December and, with the support of right-wing strategists Simon Lusk and Cameron Slater, was selected on 27 January 2011 over former broadcaster Maggie Barry.

[38][39] Ross developed connections within the Chinese community and was a "constant figure" at fundraising events, bringing in "big money" as the party's "bagman.

[45] During this term, Ross sat on the foreign affairs committee and the finance and expenditure committee and promoted a member's bill intended to create an enforcement regime against roadside windscreen washers, which passed its first reading in April 2017 with support from both National and Labour before being adopted as part of a government bill that August.

[46][47] In 2016, with Todd Muller, he traveled to the United States with the International Democracy Union to view the Republican National Convention, which he described as "vicious [and] nasty.

[49][50] Ross's support for English and Bridges was regarded as surprising because he had previously been viewed as an ally of Judith Collins, who had also been a leadership aspirant.

In a press conference, in which he also announced his resignation from the National Party and intention to resign from Parliament, he claimed Bridges had violated electoral law several times, including accepting an illegal NZ$100,000 donation from Chinese businessman Zhang Yikun, and denied allegations that he had sexually harassed several female staff (see § Bullying and sexual harassment allegations).

On 18 October Newsroom journalist Melanie Reid released an exclusive report, with four women accusing Ross of incoherent rages, harassment, and bullying behaviour.

[81] Ross later stated that his mental health crisis was triggered by a message Dowie had sent him two months earlier which contained the words "you deserve to die.

[86] Ahead of her retirement from Parliament in 2020, Dowie claimed Ross orchestrated the investigation and deliberately used his mental health as a cover to seek revenge against her.

"[90][91] While some commentary toward Ross called for him to be treated kindly in recognition of his mental health struggles, despite the way he treated others,[92][93] political commentators described Ross as "a narcissistic and ruthless game-player" and "the most extreme example" of a young career politician with no real life experience outside of politics, who viewed House of Cards as a model for how to behave.

[94][95][96] Despite announcing he would resign from Parliament in October 2018, Ross stayed on as an independent MP, albeit on medical leave until early 2019.

After Ross refused to remove the video, he was referred to Parliament's privileges committee by the Speaker of the House, Trevor Mallard.

[112][113] On 1 September, the privileges committee unanimously agreed that Ross had broken the rules by misusing edited parliamentary video for political adverting.

[117][118] The day after the election, Ross was interviewed by Newshub journalist Tova O'Brien, who criticised him for "peddling misinformation" about COVID-19 and challenged his decision to ally with Te Kahika.

[121] Sutoris said that Ross views political parties as cults and politicians as salespeople who don't need to believe in the policies they are promoting.

[121] In the documentary, Ross said he probably was "not as open-minded" towards Te Kahika's approach to COVID-19 at the beginning of the campaign, "but over time, I've come to believe the stuff that we're talking about.

[122] On 12 March 2019, it was reported that the New Zealand Police had referred Ross's complaint about Simon Bridges' disclosure of political donations to the Serious Fraud Office (the SFO).

[100][101] On 29 January 2020 the SFO announced it had charged four people in relation to the claims made by Ross in 2018 around the $100,000 donation, none of whom were sitting National Party MPs.

[124][125] In late July 2022, Ross was one of seven defendants in a High Court case involving three donations made to the Labour and National parties between 2017 and 2018.

[126] The Crown accused Ross of serving as Zhang's insider within the National Party when the latter made two donations worth over NZ$100,000 in 2017 and 2018.

The trial took ten weeks; Ross's defense was that he had lied to the SFO in order to save his political career and seek revenge against Bridges, and that the statements underpinning the Crown's case were unreliable.

In 2020, he founded a company called Praesidium Life to sell a pseudoscientific medical treatment which he claims protects users from electromagnetic radiation.