Hackett, who "The New York Times" said is six foot two and "garrulous, profane, and quick with a barked retort or a mischievous joke", was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Paul and Beth Hackett, who lived at the time in Gates Mills. When an infant, his family moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, where his father worked for the Pratt and Whitney aircraft engine company. Before Hackett started school, his family returned to Ohio when his father took a job with the General Electric Company's aircraft engine division in Evendale, a Cincinnati suburb. Hackett lived in the Ohio towns of Wyoming, Montgomery and Indian Hill, and attended the Seven Hills School and Indian Hill High School.