Jones was born in the Smithfield district of London. His father, also called Inigo Jones, was a cloth worker from Wales. As a very young man, he as an apprentice carpenter at St Paul's Cathedral. Some time before 1603 a rich patron (possibly the Earl of Pembroke or the Earl of Rutland) sent him to Italy to study drawing. After Italy he travelled to Denmark where he worked for King Christian V on the designs for the king's Rosenborg and Frederiksborg palaces. When he returned to England he began work as a theatre designer and architect. In September 1615, King Charles I appointed Jones as the Surveyor-General of the King's Works. From 1629 to 1635 he worked for buildings in Covent Garden. 