He has been the host of the PBS home renovation series This Old House since replacing Steve Thomas in 2003.

O'Connor and his four brothers and two sisters grew up on various job sites led by his father, a civil engineer.

[3] After graduating in 1986 from Saint Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark, New Jersey,[4] O'Connor received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the College of the Holy Cross in 1990.

[2] O'Connor worked for Fleet Bank as a vice president in the Sports Finance Group, then worked for Bank of America as a Senior Vice President in the Commercial Real Estate Group.

[10] O'Connor lives with his wife and their three children[2] in an 1894 Queen Anne Victorian home in Hamilton, Massachusetts.