Hurley was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, the second child of Don and Joann Hurley, and grew up near Birdsboro, Pennsylvania. He has an older sister, Heather, and a younger brother, Brent.

Since childhood, Hurley showed interest in the arts and became interested in computers and electronic media during high school. He was a standout runner for Twin Valley High School's cross-country program, which won two of its PIAA State titles with him as a member in 1992 and 1994. He was also a member of the Technology Student Association during high school. He graduated from Twin Valley High School n 1995 and earned a B.A. in Fine Art from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1999.

In 2005 Chad Hurley founded Youtube with Steve Chen and Jawad Karem. Just over a year later they sold youtube to Google. Hurley’s stake in the compnay was estimated at 345 million. He continued as the CEO of youtube until 2010, when he stepped down. He continues to be involved with the Youtube as an advisor.

In 2013, he started MixBit, a company that is developing video editing for smartphones. According to Steve Chen, it was Chad's idea to turn Avos into MixBit even before the inception of YouTube. The App resembles other famous short-video recording smartphone apps such as; Vine, Instagram and Vyclone. Its limit of recording stretches up to 256 clips, each clip can be maximum 16 seconds long. It also features the editing tools similar to its other competitor apps. Mixbit now Zeen was acquired by BlueJeans in August 2018