Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado was born on October 28, 1968 in the city of Gracias, Lempira, in the village of Río Grande. He studied at the National Autonomous University of Honduras where he became a graduate in Law and Social Sciences notary, lawyer. He also earned a Master's degree in Public Administration with emphasis on US legislation.

While studying at the UNAH, Juan Orlando was actively involved in university politics to become President of the Law Students Association, 1988 and 1989. In 1990 his brother, Marco Augusto took the First Secretary of the Legislature and He decided to call him to be his Executive Assistant during this period and began to relate to the National Party.

As a professional of laws, Hernandez has been a member of several law firms and Professor of Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Honduras.

In the 1997 election, he defeated former Liberal MP for Lempira.Durante his second legislative term, was elected as First Secretary of the Board, a position from which he promoted innovative measures of transparency in the legislative management. During his tenure the website of the National Congress was created as a tool to bring the legislature to the people.

In January 2010, the full Congress chose Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado, as the provisional president of the Board of that state power. before leaving Congress to pursue his presidential campaign, Hernandez introduced a bill to create Integral Unity Government Takes Special Response Security (Tigres).

Hernandez is married to Ana Rosalinda Garcia and has fathered four children: Ivonne Maria, Juan Orlando, Ana Daniela and Isabela.