Robin Hooper was born in London and first took up skiing while living in Canada with his mother and siblings during World War II while his father served with the Ministry of War Transport. In 1949, Hooper won the junior Kandahar ski championship in Mürren, Switzerland at the age of 14. Joining the National Service in the early 1950s, Hooper continued to find success in his sport, winning the British Army Ski Championship in 1953 and the British Men’s Ski Championship in 1954; both events a combination of downhill and slalom. This eventually led to his selection for the British skiing team at the 1956 Olympics held in Cortina d’Ampezzo in which he placed 66th in the giant slalom event. In 1965, Hooper married Anna Tyszkiewicz, of Polish–Lithuanian nobility. They had two children and later resided in East Sussex.
Great Britain