Hone Kouka: Ngati Porou, Ngati Kahungungu, Ngati Raukawa, was born in Balclutha in 1968, and raised in Rangiora, the potiki of a large whanau. In Dunedin he attended King's High School and Otago University, graduating in 1988 with a Bachelor Of Arts in English. In that year he also co-ordinated the first production of John Broughton's: Te Hara - The Sin. He went on to study in Wellington at Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa: The New Zealand Drama School, graduating in 1990.
Hone has worked as a sawmiller, forestry worker, journalist, actor and director but is best known as a playwright. As well as writing for theatre, he appeared in several plays at Taki Rua/Depot Theatre in Wellington.
Hone is also well known for his play Waiora which premiered at the 1996 International Festival of the Arts and went on to tour Brighton, UK, and for three months in New Zealand. He is also known for his play Nga Tangata Toa based on Ibsen's The Warriors At Helgeland which premiered in 1994 and Ahi Kaa - Homefires which premiered at the 1998 International Festival Of the Arts. He has won a string of New Zealand's most prestigious playwriting awards including three Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards, and since his Writer In Residency at Canterbury University in 1996, lectures in Maori Theatre on an annual basis.
Hone also writes for television, has acted as a script advisor and has written a novel. He has furthermore worked on Te Kakano - a Maori language series for ETV in 1997 and has edited a collection of Maori Plays for Victoria University Press.