As a young man, Hughes graduated law school at Rutgers University, earned a Masters of Laws from Georgetown, and a Masters of Public Policy and Political Science from the Eagleton Institute at Rutgers University. After Rutgers, he became a trial attorney and a federal prosecutor for the Justice Department. Hughes is the son of William Hughes, who served in Congress from 1975 to 1995 and as U.S. Ambassador to Panama from 1995 to 1998.