Hoobastank formed in Agoura Hills, a suburb of L.A. county, in 1994. Drummer Chris Hesse has recalled that vocalist Doug Robb had known guitarist Dan Estrin for some time before competing against him in a high school battle of the bands competition, leading to them forming a band. After recruiting Hesse and Markku Lappalainen, they called themselves Hoobastank (at the time it was spelt ‘Hoobustank’, but pronounced the same way) – according to Robb, the word has no particular meaning, however Hesse has said that Robb’s brother lives in Germany, near a street called Hooba Street (or something similar), and Robb called it 'Hoobastank' when he was very young.
Hoobastank started playing gigs at the local venue Cobalt Cafe, along with Linkin’ Park (whose members Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson attended the same school as the members of Hoobastank), Incubus, Avenged Sevenfold and others. After developing a strong reputation in Southern California, they recorded their first full length self-released album in 1998, “They Sure Don't Make Basketball Shorts Like They Used To”, which attracted interest from Island Records, who subsequently signed the band in 2000. At the time of signing, the band had completed a second full length album, titled "Forward", but this was eventually shelved, with a few tracks re-recorded for their self titled November 2001 release. The first single from "Hoobastank" was "Crawling in the Dark", which reached number 68 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 3 on the Modern Rock chart, number 7 on the Mainstream Rock chart and number 1 on the MP3.com download chart in early 2002. Second single "Running Away" enjoyed more success, reaching number 44 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 2 on the Modern Rock chart, number 9 on the Mainstream Rock chart and number 3 on the MP3.com download chart. As an album, "Hoobastank" went platinum, reaching number 25 on the Billboard 200 album charts and number 1 on the Billboard Heatseeker chart. The album also achieved recognition internationally with the band touring in Europe and Asia in support of the record. "Remember Me", which was the third single released from the album and made number 23 on the Modern Rock charts and number 9 on the Mainstream Rock charts.

Along with producer Howard Benson (P.O.D., Blindside, Cold, The Crystal Method), the band entered the studio in 2003, but suffered a month’s setback when guitarist Estrin was seriously injured in a freak minibike accident in August. Estrin had recovered by October, and second mainstream album “The Reason” was released in the December. The single "Same Direction" climbed to number 9 on the U.S. Modern Rock chart, and number 16 on both the Mainstream Rock chart and on a composite World Modern Rock chart (based on the U.S., Germany, Sweden, Finland, Canada and Australia).
The title track, released as a single in the first half of 2004, became a massive hit, charting at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 1 on the U.S. Modern Rock, World Modern Rock and World Airplay charts, number 10 in Australia, number 12 in the UK and number 15 in Germany. The song was played during the final episode of the TV series “Friends”, and in Canada it spent 21 weeks at the top, setting a new record for the most weeks at number 1. “The Reason” reached number 3 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Around the same time, the band supported Linkin’ Park on their “Meteora” world tour.

Third album “Every Man for Himself”, released in May 2006, debuted at number 12 on the Billboard chart, although the 3 singles that were released, "If I Were You", "Inside of You" and "Born to Lead" have all fared poorly on the rock charts, which may explain why a fourth single, "If Only" was planned to be released but was canceled. Despite this, the album has been certified Gold in the U.S.

In respect of a fourth album, October 2007 saw Robb post on the official Hoobastank message boards that they have "Set the bar very very high for this next CD" and that they have "More ideas going into this CD than ever before".