Doug Anthony Hutchison was born in Dover, Delaware. He attended Bishop Foley High School in Madison Heights, Michigan and graduated from Apple Valley High School in Apple Valley, Minnesota in 1978. He later attended University of Minnesota at Minneapolis-St Paul, and studied at the Juilliard School in New York City.

Hutchison’s film work began in the late 1980s, appearing as Sproles in the 1988 drama Fresh Horses and Obie Jameson in the 1988 film adaptation of The Chocolate War. Of his performance in Fresh Horses, one critic observed that he “hoist[ed the film] onto his shoulders for the duration of his scenes”. In the 1990s, he appeared in films such as The Green Mile, The Lawnmower Man (1992), A Time to Kill (1996), Con Air (1997), and Batman & Robin (1997). His later supporting roles included Shaft (2000), Bait (2000), I Am Sam (2001), The Salton Sea (2002), and No Good Deed (2002).

His 2000s feature film roles included playing James “Looney Bin Jim” Russotti in the Punisher: War Zone, and his television roles included Horace Goodspeed in Lost. He also starred in Give ‘Em Hell, Malone (2009). In October 2008, Hutchison’s production company, Dark Water, debuted the web series Vampire Killers, which depicts four vampire hunters combating a vampire population of over 500,000 in Los Angeles.

On May 20, 2011, Hutchison married his third wife, Courtney Stodden, in Las Vegas. They met when Stodden attended an acting class taught by Hutchison.

In October 2012, the couple appeared as one of the celebrity couples in the second season of the VH1 reality television series Couples Therapy, which depicts celebrity couples undergoing counseling for relationship problems. According to Stodden, the couple enrolled in therapy in order to resolve issues that arose in their marriage from their age difference. On November 1, 2013, the media reported that Stodden and Hutchison were ending their marriage of two and a half years and filing for divorce. In August 2014, the pair announced that they had reconciled.

In May 2016, it was announced that the couple was expecting their first child. However, in July 2016, around three months into her pregnancy, Stodden suffered a miscarriage. On May 20, 2016, Hutchison and Stodden celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary by renewing their vows.

In January 2017, it was reported that Stodden and Hutchison had separated, but were still living together at the time. In March 2018, Stodden filed for divorce. The divorce was finalized in March 2020.

On April 8, 2018, Hutchison announced via the Erick & Deer the Goat YouTube channel that he returned to Detroit to find Erick Brown, who travels the country with a therapy goat to spread peace, and that he fully supports Brown’s initiative, the Rock Club Foundation.