Hailing from Florida, and a 1996 graduate from the New World School of the Arts with a degree in Painting, Hance landed his professional job at Foundation Imaging in 1997, in whose employment he would remain for the remainder of that company's existence, that ended in April 2002. While there he worked predominantly on the television series Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles, Max Steel, Alias, and the television movie Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future (2001), before being tasked with Star Trek. Upon closure of Foundation Imaging, he moved over to 3d BOB, working on the series NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, before joining many of his former Foundation co-workers at Eden FX in March 2003, starting to work on the Enterprise episode that won him his Emmy Award nomination.