As a child, he moved with his parents from the United States back to Saudi Arabia, where he grew up. The "Charleston Post and Courier" reported that Hamdi ran away from home during the summer of 2001, when he was 20 years old, and trained at a Taliban camp. His family said that he spent only a few weeks at the camp, "where he quickly became disillusioned". He was caught up in the fighting and chaos after the United States invaded Afghanistan.