Matt Hooley won his first race, trying out for the 8th grade basketball team. Afterwards the coach said "you can't shoot, but you are pretty fast". Eventually, Matt listened to his coach and started running competitively at Carleton College, where he became a 9-time MIAC Champion, All-American, and 2-time Academic All-American. Hooley was also named the 2004 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) most outstanding performer in Track & Field.

In his senior year, Matt won a NCAA post-graduate scholarship and began graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is a PhD candidate in English Literature.

Since college, Matt has focused on the roads--with the marathon his primary focus. In 2007 he qualified for US Olympic Marathon Trials with an Olympic Trials 'A' Standard time of 2:19:57. Last spring, Hooley qualified for his second Olympic Marathon Trials, winning the Eugene Marathon by 8 minutes in a new personal best of 2:18:38.