Hayden Christensen was born in Vancouver, but his family later moved to the Toronto area, where he went to school. He has a brother, 27, and two sisters, 25 and 15 years old. His parents are in the communications business.

Hayden broke into acting in an unusual way. His older sister did a commercial for Pringles (she was Junior World Trampoline Champion). When she went to get a talent agent, "there was no one to baby-sit me and I went along for the ride and they asked me if I wanted to do some commercials and I said sure," Hayden added. When he was 12 years old, Christensen had a continuing role in the first Canadian television soap opera, the daily hour-long Family Passions.

Hayden was recently seen on the Fox Family Channel series Higher Ground, and is currently in the Sofia Coppola film The Virgin Suicides. But he has been acting since he was seven years old in commercials, theater and television, and has done two other films: Strike and In the Mouth of Madness. Other recent television credits include Purple Haze and Free Fall.