達斯汀·霍夫曼1937年出生於洛杉磯，早年曾在洛杉磯音樂學院學習音樂，1955年從洛杉磯高中畢業後進入聖塔莫尼卡社區學院就讀，直到修習戲劇課程後才正式轉向表演之路。他在帕薩迪納劇院（Pasadena Playhouse）接受正式演員訓練期間，與後來同樣成為傳奇演員的金·哈克曼結為好友，兩人當年在演員評比中皆被班上同學票選為「最不可能成功的學生」——這段軼事後來成為好萊塢最著名的勵志故事之一。

Dustin Hoffman was born in Los Angeles in 1937 and studied music early on at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. After graduating from Los Angeles High School in 1955, he attended Santa Monica City College, only shifting formally toward acting after taking drama coursework. During his formal actor training at the Pasadena Playhouse, he became friends with fellow future legend Gene Hackman — the two were voted 'least likely to succeed' by their classmates, an anecdote that later became one of Hollywood's most famous stories of persistence paying off.

霍夫曼後來持續在紐約的演員工作室（Actors Studio）跟隨李·史特拉斯堡深造，這段訓練奠定了他日後以極度投入、貼近角色真實心理狀態聞名的表演風格。他早年在百老匯與外百老匯累積了大量舞台演出經驗，直到1967年《畢業生》才讓他從舞台劇演員一躍成為好萊塢新一代明星。

Hoffman later continued training under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York, grounding his acting style in intense psychological immersion in character. He accumulated extensive stage experience on and off Broadway in his early years, until 1967's The Graduate catapulted him from stage actor to a new generation of Hollywood star.

《畢業生》讓霍夫曼一舉成名，也徹底改變了好萊塢對「男主角」外型與氣質的既定想像——他不是傳統高大英俊的類型，而是用神經質、笨拙卻真實的表演風格,開創了一種全新的銀幕存在感。隨後的《午夜牛郎》讓他證明自己能徹底自我抹除、化身為完全不同的角色形象。1970年代末到80年代，他持續以《驚天大陰謀》《克拉瑪對克拉瑪》《窈窕淑男》等作品,展現橫跨政治驚悚、家庭倫理與性別喜劇的驚人戲路寬度。

The Graduate made Hoffman famous overnight and fundamentally changed Hollywood's assumptions about a leading man's look and demeanor — not the classic tall, handsome type, but a neurotic, awkward, authentic screen presence that opened an entirely new mode of stardom. Midnight Cowboy soon proved he could erase himself entirely into a completely different character. From the late 1970s through the '80s, he continued demonstrating remarkable range across political thriller, family drama, and gender comedy in All the President's Men, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Tootsie.

1988年的《雨人》讓他第二度拿下奧斯卡最佳男主角，他為了準確詮釋自閉症天才雷蒙,花費大量時間實地研究真實自閉症患者的行為模式——這份對角色真實性近乎苛求的堅持，成為他整個職業生涯最鮮明的標誌。

1988's Rain Man brought him his second Academy Award for Best Actor; to accurately portray autistic savant Raymond, he spent extensive time studying real autistic individuals' behavioral patterns — this near-obsessive commitment to authenticity became the defining hallmark of his entire career.

2017年，多名女性公開指控霍夫曼曾有不當性騷擾行為，指控時間橫跨數十年,涉及不當言論與行為，這起事件對他晚年的公眾形象造成一定衝擊。這段爭議是他完整人生記錄中無法迴避的一部分。

In 2017, several women publicly accused Hoffman of sexual misconduct spanning decades, involving inappropriate comments and behavior, an episode that impacted his public image in later years. This controversy is an unavoidable part of his complete life record.