Jack Hody Johnson was born in May 1975 in Hawaii, the son of the famous surfer Jeff Johnson. Young Jack naturally had an interest in surfing, starting at the age of 5, and by the time he was 17 he made the finals at the Pipe trial and became the youngest competitor ever to do so. However, he suffered a surfing accident around this time, having his front teeth knocked out and receiving nearly 150 stitches. Whilst recovering, he developed his interest in music, fuelled by having played the guitar since he was 14, and also by the realisation that the competitiveness of surfing was too much for him. He has since remembered "Guys were ready to kill each other to catch the next wave."

Jack Johnson continued to write songs during his college years at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which is where he met his wife Kim (for whom the song “Do You Remember” was written). He also played rhythm guitar for the party band Soil. It was around this time that G. Love was introduced to Johnson for a day of surfing. He ended up recording Johnson's song “Rodeo Clowns” for his last album “Philadelphonic”, becoming the first single from the album, with Johnson singing and playing on the track. Johnson also created a 4 track demo which caught the ears of Ben Harper's producer and right hand man, J. P. Plunier. Plunier went on to work with Johnson on his debut album, 2001’s “Brushfire Fairytales”, with Harper and his lap steel guitar making a guest appearance.

After graduating from college with a degree in film, and susequent to his debut LP, Johnson has released “On And On” (2003), which made the Top 30 in the UK Album chart, and went to number 3 in the US, “In Between Dreams” (2005), which was number 2 in the US, and number 1 in the UK, New Zealand and Australia, and 2008’s “Sleep Through The Static”, which occupied the number 1 position in the US, UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada.