section_path: Early life and education
section_name: Early life and education
paragraph_text: Early life and education
  
  Peter Brian Hegseth was born on June 6, 1980, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Hegseth is of Norwegian descent. He was the first child of Brian and Penelope "Penny" Hegseth. Brian was a basketball coach for high schools across Minnesota before retiring in 2019, while Penny is an executive business coach who has taught with the Minnesota Excellence in Public Service (MEPS) Series, a fellowship and leadership program for Republican and center-right women. Hegseth was raised in Forest Lake, Minnesota, and attended Forest Lake Area High School. He graduated in 1999 as valedictorian and was later inducted into the hall of fame. He played for the school's football team and was a point guard on the basketball team, earning school records in career and single-season three-point shots and single-season three-point shooting percentage. Hegseth was twice named all-conference and earned all-state honors as a senior.
  
  In 1999, Hegseth enrolled at Princeton University, where he majored in politics. According to Reserve & National Guard Magazine, he chose Princeton over an offer from the United States Military Academy for Princeton's men's basketball program, the Tigers. Months before the September 11 attacks, Hegseth joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. He played for the Tigers, and was the publisher and later editor-in-chief of The Princeton Tory, a conservative newspaper. In April 2002, he declared that as publisher, he would "defend the pillars of Western civilization against the distractions of diversity". The editors of The Princeton Tory criticized Halle Berry for accepting the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Monster's Ball (2001) "on behalf of an entire race", and The New York Times for announcing that it would print gay marriage announcements, arguing that it would justify publishing marriage announcements for incestuous, zoophilic, and pedophilic relationships. In October, the Tory published an editorial characterizing homosexuality as immoral. In response, the president of Princeton's student government, Nina Langsam, wrote a strongly worded email to The Princeton Tory ' s publisher, Brad Simmons, and Hegseth. Her email was published in the following issue. In May 2025, The Daily Princetonian accused Hegseth of having plagiarized portions of his senior thesis.
  
  Peter Brian Hegseth was born on June 6, 1980, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Hegseth is of Norwegian descent. He was the first child of Brian and Penelope "Penny" Hegseth. Brian was a basketball coach for high schools across Minnesota before retiring in 2019, while Penny is an executive business coach who has taught with the Minnesota Excellence in Public Service (MEPS) Series, a fellowship and leadership program for Republican and center-right women. Hegseth was raised in Forest Lake, Minnesota, and attended Forest Lake Area High School. He graduated in 1999 as valedictorian and was later inducted into the hall of fame. He played for the school's football team and was a point guard on the basketball team, earning school records in career and single-season three-point shots and single-season three-point shooting percentage. Hegseth was twice named all-conference and earned all-state honors as a senior.
  
  In 1999, Hegseth enrolled at Princeton University, where he majored in politics. According to Reserve & National Guard Magazine, he chose Princeton over an offer from the United States Military Academy for Princeton's men's basketball program, the Tigers. Months before the September 11 attacks, Hegseth joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. He played for the Tigers, and was the publisher and later editor-in-chief of The Princeton Tory, a conservative newspaper. In April 2002, he declared that as publisher, he would "defend the pillars of Western civilization against the distractions of diversity". The editors of The Princeton Tory criticized Halle Berry for accepting the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Monster's Ball (2001) "on behalf of an entire race", and The New York Times for announcing that it would print gay marriage announcements, arguing that it would justify publishing marriage announcements for incestuous, zoophilic, and pedophilic relationships. In October, the Tory published an editorial characterizing homosexuality as immoral. In response, the president of Princeton's student government, Nina Langsam, wrote a strongly worded email to The Princeton Tory ' s publisher, Brad Simmons, and Hegseth. Her email was published in the following issue. In May 2025, The Daily Princetonian accused Hegseth of having plagiarized portions of his senior thesis.