Christopher Hughes, born on November 26, 1983, in Hickory, North Carolina, grew up in a middle-class family with his father working in the paper industry and his mother as a public school teacher. He attended the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York, studied one year at Carnegie Mellon University, and then transferred to Harvard University, where he earned an A.B. in history and literature in 2006. While at Harvard, he roomed with Mark Zuckerberg and was one of the four co-founders of Facebook, serving as its spokesman until 2007. After leaving Facebook, Hughes worked as an online organizer for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and founded Project Spartan for grassroots organizing.

In 2012, Hughes acquired The New Republic and served as its publisher and editor-in-chief until 2016. During his ownership, he fired editor Franklin Foer in December 2014, an action that led to a mass resignation of staff amid controversy over editorial shifts toward a digital focus. Hughes stepped down from his roles at the magazine in 2016.

Hughes married political activist Sean Eldridge in 2012; the couple supports progressive causes and has faced scrutiny over Eldridge's campaigns funded by Hughes. Since 2016, Hughes has focused on philanthropy and advocacy, co-founding the Economic Security Project to promote policies such as universal basic income, authoring the 2018 book "Fair Shot: Rethinking Capitalism and Economic Policy for the Twenty-First Century," and supporting democratic reforms through Jolt Action. He primarily resides in New York City, is a prominent Democratic donor, and his net worth—largely derived from Facebook shares—is estimated in the hundreds of millions, though figures vary. Hughes has faced criticism for his management of The New Republic and for the intersection of his personal wealth with political activism.