Hardy is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He attended California Institute of Technology as an undergraduate and the University of California Berkeley for his Ph.D.
In his college years, he became fascinated with fantasy literature. In addition to being a fantasy author, he worked for 30 years at the aerospace company TRW, and started a computer consulting company named Alodar Systems Inc. that, among other things, helped develop intelligence tools for medical research and enterprise resource planning software for small businesses. He is married and has two daughters.
In 1961, Hardy masterminded the Great Rose Bowl Hoax, in which Caltech students rearranged the cards used by Washington to spell out words during halftime.
