[2] Born in Savannah, Georgia, Hunter served in the United States Marine Corps[3] and graduated from the University of Virginia.

After completing the film, a chance meeting with Dino De Laurentiis led him to be invited to star as the lead in The Hills Run Red leading him to a career in European - primarily Italian[5] - cinema with guest appearances in American television series.

His dissatisfaction with European cinema led him to found the New England Repertory Company.

The novel Softly Walks the Beast is an end-of-the-world story that takes place in the not-too-distant future and centers on a dwindling community of smart and resourceful people on a college campus, struggling against the horrible and seemingly unstoppable after-effects of a nuclear war.

[6] In 2015, Hunter published his memoir Memoirs of a Spaghetti Cowboy: Tales of Oddball Luck and Derring-Do, which chronicles his adventures starring in numerous Spaghetti Westerns and other foreign productions while living in Rome.