Born in the suburbs of Paris, he began his secondary education at the Sceaux high school, where his mother was a teacher. He was educated at the École Normale Supérieure. His participation in the student rebellion of May 1968 brought him closer to the French Communist Party, which later expelled him because of his homosexuality. He taught Philosophy at the Vincennes-Saint Denis University in Paris and was the author of numerous novels and theoretical works, as well as being a regular contributor to the publication Libération.

Hocquenghem was the first man to belong to the Front Homosexuel d'Action Révolutionnaire (FHAR; Homosexual Front for Revolutionary Action), originally formed in 1971 from the split of a lesbian group Mouvement Homophile de France. In 1972 he publicly announced his homosexuality in the Nouvel Observateur, the first man in France to do so.

He wrote and produced a documentary on gay history, Race d'Ep! A siècle d'image de l'homosexualité Hocquenghem died of an AIDS-related illness in 1988. His ashes lie in the Père-Lachaise cemetery.

Although Hocquenghem had a significant impact in France, his reputation has not spread internationally. Only two works have been translated into English, Le désir homosexuel (Homosexual Desire) and his first novel L'amour en relief.