He was born in Vienna, his father Franz Hoffmann was a clerk of the lower law court of Erdberg, a city district.

In 1826, Louis Duport engaged him at the Vienna Court Opera, where he took the lead role in Der Klausner am wüsten Berge by Caraffa.

[1][2][3][4] Hoffmann returned to Vienna in 1855, and acquired the Theater in der Josefstadt; the first work staged under his management was the play L'Honneur et l'argent by François Ponsard.

In 1856 he built the Thalia Theatre [de], which he also managed; the Thalia Theatre staged works including Weber's Der Freischütz and the Zauberspiel Der Verschwender [de] by Ferdinand Raimund.

Roles on stage included Simeon in Joseph by Étienne Méhul, Jacob in Die Schweizer Familie by Joseph Weigl, the title roles in Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, Weber's Oberon and Rossini's Otello, and Tamino in Mozart's The Magic Flute.