Marcus Hodge was born in Sussex and attended the University of London, graduating in 1988 with a degree in Economics. The following year he moved to Palma, Spain to attend the Escuela Libre del Mediterráneo, one of the few remaining traditional art schools in Europe. He undertook a five-year training in classical oil painting under the tuition of Joaquín Torrents Lladó (1946–1993), one of Spain's top contemporary portrait and landscape artists. There, Hodge received a comprehensive grounding in techniques such as proportion, chiaroscuro, still life and portraiture. On completing his training, he became the third person in the school's twenty-five-year history to be invited to remain as a tutor.
Hodge returned to Britain in 1996 and established his studio in Oxfordshire. Within a year he had exhibited with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. His first trip to India in 2001 inspired a solo exhibition at Fine Art Commissions (Cork Street, London), which included landscapes and portraits. Hodge produced five more shows at FAC between 2002 and 2011. His most recent solo show at Rountree Tryon London was in winter 2017.
William Packer of the Financial Times has called Hodge 'one of the most successful portrait artists of his generation'. Significant portrait commissions include the President of the Union Club, New York; Lord Tebbit for the Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital; Lord Gill; and Lord Justice Ryder for Bolton University. Other notable commissions have come from the Scots Guards at Balmoral; the Jockey Club in Newmarket; the Vice Chancellors of Bournemouth University; and the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery, which requested a large pair of paintings to commemorate the artillery's sixtieth anniversary parade in Hyde Park.