Since childhood, Hurley showed interest in the arts, and became interested in computers and electronic media during high school. He was a standout runner for Twin Valley High School’s cross-country program, which won two of its PIAA State titles with him as a member in 1992 and 1994. He was also a member of the Technology Student Association during high school. He graduated from Twin Valley High School n 1995 and earned a B.A. in Fine Art from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1999.

Hurley founded YouTube in 2005 with Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. On October 16, 2006, Chen and Hurley sold YouTube to Google Inc. for $1.65 billion. It was reported in The Wall Street Journal that Hurley’s share was $345.6M at Google’s February 7, 2007 closing stock price of $470.01. He received 694,087 Google shares directly and another 41,232 shares in a trust.

YouTube’s other two co-founders, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, received 625,366 shares and 137,443 shares, respectively valued at $326.2M and $64.6M. The Journal’s report was based on Google’s registration statement with SEC filed on February 7, 2007.

Hurley stepped down as CEO of YouTube in October 2010 and stated he would stay on as an advisor of YouTube, allowing Salar Kamangar to take over the CEO position.

Chad was involved as a major investor with US F1 Team, one of the new entrants in Formula One automobile racing for the 2010 season. On March 2, 2010, the team’s personnel were dismissed from their duties and the team was unofficially shut down. Neither Hurley, team principal Ken Anderson nor sporting director Peter Windsor would comment on the team’s failure to make it to the grid.

In August 2013, Hurley launched another company called MixBit which does video editing using smartphones. According to Steve Chen, it was Chad’s idea to turn Avos into MixBit even before the inception of YouTube.

Mixbit now Zeen was acquired by BlueJeans in August 2018.