He went to Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield Hills Michigan. Hansen became a reporter for Lansing NBC affiliate WILX in 1981 during his senior year at Michigan State University. He then reported for WFLA in Tampa, various radio stations and newspapers in Michigan, WXYZ in Detroit, and WDIV as an investigative reporter and anchor from 1988. In May 1993, Hansen joined NBC News as a correspondent for the newsmagazine "Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric".