Hodder was born in Auburn, California, in 1955.

Early in his career during an interview, Hodder offered to show the interviewer and her cameraman a fire stunt. It went horribly wrong, leaving him with 2nd and 3rd degree burns over much of his upper body. It was because of these burns that he was initially selected to portray Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street, a role that would eventually go to Robert Englund with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. Hodder was the first actor to portray Jason Voorhees more than once, in a total of four consecutive movies from Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood to Jason X. He portrayed horror icon Leatherface through the stunt work of the 1990 film Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III and played Freddy Krueger's clawed glove hand at the ending scene of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. He also acted as a police guard in Jason Goes to Hell. He also appeared in an episode of The Arsenio Hall Show to promote Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, in costume as Jason.

Although he offered to reprise his role as Jason Voorhees in the 2003 film Freddy vs. Jason, director Ronny Yu replaced Hodder with 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) Canadian stuntman Ken Kirzinger. The switch created controversy among fans of the series and has been credited to several rumors, including Kirzinger's location in Canada and his height compared to Robert Englund, the actor who portrayed Freddy Krueger, while Yu himself stated that it was New Line Cinema's idea to do so.^[3] Though Hodder still expresses resentment over not being chosen, he is still good friends with Kirzinger and Englund.^[4] In 2011 Hodder wrote, along with author Michael Aloisi, his autobiography Unmasked: The True Story of the World's Most Prolific Cinematic Killer.^[5] This was in 2014 turned into a webseries, which was released as The Killer & I.^[6]

Hodder starred in the slasher film Hatchet as main character Victor Crowley, a physically deformed young boy who comes back from the dead to kill the people who invade the swamp where he lives—^[7] a similar story in relation to that of Jason Voorhees. The role earned him the Horror Jury Award for Best Actor at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. He reprised this role in Hatchet II, Hatchet III and Victor Crowley.^[8]

Hodder portrayed Grawesome Crutal in the slasher film, Muck and its sequel Muck: Feast of Saint Patrick.^[9] He co-starred with Doug Jones and Michael McShane in the horror comedy film Love in the Time of Monsters.^[10] In March 2015, he was part of Adam Green's ArieScope webseries Adam Green's Scary Sleepover.^[11]

Kane Hodder reprised his role as Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th: The Game.

Hodder is an avid poker player.^{[citation needed]} He has the word "Kill!" tattooed on the back of his bottom lip.^[12] He spends time working with children in burn centers,^[13] and despite the roles he often plays, Hodder has often ^[when?] been described as a very friendly man who loves to meet his fans.^{[citation needed][by whom?]}

For a long time, Hodder claimed his favorite kill scene in his films was the "sleeping bag against a tree" scene from Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. He now considers the one where he rips a woman's face in half from Hatchet (2006) to be his favorite.^[14]

Hodder is a noted Juggalo, a fan of the group Insane Clown Posse. To reflect this, he has a custom charm of the group's "hatchetman" logo holding a machete instead of a hatchet, a reference to his role as Jason.^[12]

Hodder appeared on the December 4, 2012, episode of the TruTV show Hardcore Pawn, in which he had a miniature gold mask made from a piece a fan had made for him.

Hodder is also an avid ghost hunter. He founded the Hollywood Ghost Hunters group with former stuntman and friend Rick "Stuntman" McCullum, who was a stunt double for Sid Haig.

In 1984, he married his wife Susan B. Hodder. They have two sons, Jace and Reed.

Hodder co-wrote an autobiography with author Mike Aloisi.^[15] The book is about his life and experience in the film industry and was released on October 1, 2011.

Unmasked documents the unlikely true story of a boy who was taunted and beaten relentlessly by bullies throughout his childhood. Kane only escaped his tormentors when he moved to a tiny island in the South Pacific where he lived for all of his teen years. After living shirtless in a jungle for a while, he headed back to America where he fell in love with doing stunts—only to have his love burn him, literally. For the first time ever, Kane tells the true story of the burn injury that nearly killed him at the start of his career. The entire story of his recovery, the emotional and physical damage it caused, his fight to break back into the industry that almost killed him, and his rise to become a film actor are told in Kane's own voice.^[16]