[4] Ashman is from Winchester, Hampshire, He attended St Bede's Primary School and Peter Symonds Grammar School/College.

Between 2002 and 2006, Ashman was the question-setter and arbiter on the Radio 4 quiz show Brain of Britain, working under the pen-name of 'Jorkins' (a name taken from David Copperfield).

For 10 years, Ashman had never incorrectly answered a history category question, this happened for the first time on 6 January 2014 which caused him to miss out on the final round of that day.

Currently ranked World/European number 1,[7] Ashman has 17 gold, 13 silver and 3 bronze medals from the British, European and World Championships, and has been capped 10 times for the England team, with a record of 7 wins and 3 losses.

He is the first person to retain this title and, for a second year running, he finished ahead of Pat Gibson of Ireland and Nico Pattyn of Belgium.

In 2009 he narrowly missed the British title, losing by a point in a tie-break, to 2008 World Champion Mark Bytheway.

In the QLL he competes with the Allsorts (alongside former Mastermind winner Gavin Fuller) and has won the league on numerous occasions, in the Winchester Quiz League, organised by Peter Byford, he plays for the King Alfred and in national events he plays for the Milhous Warriors.

The Milhous Warriors, most of whom are based in Swindon, England, have often emerged victorious in the team elements of events run by Quizzing.co.uk, becoming National Champions at Old Trafford football stadium in 2004 and Silverstone in 2005 as part of those years' UK leg of the World Quizzing Championship event.

[citation needed] In April 2024, it was revealed that Ashman is an avid watcher of the BBC Two programme University Challenge.