While in college, according to Hoffman, he formed a conviction that he wanted to try to influence the state of the world on a large scale. He went on to earn an Master of Studies in Philosophy from Wolfson College, Oxford in 1993 as a Marshall Scholar. He graduated from Stanford University in 1990, where he won both a Marshall Scholarship and a Dinkelspiel Award, with a Bachelor of Science in Symbolic Systems and Cognitive Science. Hoffman attended high school at The Putney School, where he farmed maple syrup, drove oxen, and studied epistemology. Although he was only 14 years old at the time, Hoffman's name was featured on the box of Chaosium's RuneQuest role-playing game release Borderlands (1982), receiving equal billing with game designers Steve Perrin, Sandy Petersen and Greg Stafford. His first paid job (at age 12) was as an editor at the game company Chaosium, then based in Oakland near his home.

Hoffman described himself as an avid tabletop roleplaying gamer as a child. Hoffman's uncle Eric Hoffman is a writer. His paternal great-great-great-grandfather was Theophilus Adam Wylie, a Christian Presbyterian minister and Indiana University president pro tempore. 1580 with a net worth of US $1.97 billion.

On the Forbes 2021 list of the world's billionaires, Hoffman was ranked No. He is currently a partner at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners and a co-founder of Inflection AI. Hoffman was the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for professional networking.

Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author.

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