Christopher Hampton was born in Azores, Portugal. In his childhood, he lived in countries such as Yemen, Egypt, China and Tanzania, as his father had to move constantly due to his job as a marine telecommunications engineer. When the Suez Crisis came in 1956, Christopher and his family were forced to escape during the night, leaving their belongings behind.

Later on, when he was an Oxford student, he began to write original theatre plays and to adapt novels into plays. In 1990, at 44 years old, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for the screen version of the play Dangerous Liaisons, also written by him. In 1995 he made his debut as a director with Carrington, unanimous winner of the Jury Special Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2007,  he was nominated once again for an Oscar, for the film adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel Atonement.

In 2011, he wrote the script of A Dangerous Method, directed by David Cronenberg.

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