Yaakov Hoffman lives in Beit Shemesh with his wife, Susan and five kids. He was born in Boston and made Aliya at the age of 11 with his family to Rehovot. He attended Shaalvim High School. Before beginning Hesder at Shaalvim and Gush, he spent two years in Rav Steinsaltz's Yeshiva Mekor Chaim.
He holds Bachelors degrees from Bar Ilan University in Arabic and Psychology, a Masters degree from Bar Ilan in clinical child psychology, and a PhD in cognitive psychology from Ben Gurion University in the Negev. He completed a post-doc at Hebrew University studying the neuro-cognitive science of memory.