Philipp was the youngest son of Prince Johann Georg (1577–1623) from his marriage with Franziska (d. 1619), a daughter of Duke Friedrich I of Salm, Wild- and Rhinegrave in Neufville.
Pope Alexander VII allowed him to revert to the lay state, in exchange for a payment of 4000 scudi.
However, because of everything the rulers of Hohenzollern-Hechingen had done while they were in the imperial service, Emperor Leopold I, extended the right to this title to Philipp.
The Pope also gave the 50-year-old Philipp the dispensation he needed to marry in Baden-Baden on 12 November 1662 to Princess Marie Sidonie (1635–1686), a daughter of Margrave Herman Fortunatus of Baden-Rodemachern.
The principality had been financially and economically ruined by the Thirty Years' War and was slowly recovering, due in part to Philipp's modest court and the dowry his wife brought in.