Cortes appears to have been born in 1484. He lived in the Indies for about twelve years and having reached Santo Domingo aged twenty-two in 1505. He was descended from some of the most turbulent families, in the most undisciplined of towns, Medellin, in the wildest part of Castille. Cortes was an offspring of an immense extended family of Hildalgos of that region. Hernan presumably learned about the art of soldering from his father and at some point, he became an excellent horseman. In those days, soldering included the technique of early artillery as well as some elementary methods of discipline.

Cortes left Medellin in his teens and in 1496 at the age of twelve, he went to Salamanca. This was the city in which his father was supposed to have been born. Here he lived with his aunt for two years and is said to have studied Latin and grammar. In 1501 and at the age of seventeen, Cortes returned to Medellin where he arranged to accompany the expedition to the Indies. Cortes set off for seville where Ovando was making his plans for his expedition of thirty-two ships. But Cortes didn't leave with Ovando because of an injury he sustained after falling from a girl's window. While recovering from his injury, Cortes caught a variety of malaria known as cuartanas ( a fever which returns every four days). With no further great expedition to the Indies planned, Cortes toyed with idea of going to Italy but did not. He instead spent a couple of years in Salamanca and Valladolid and a short stay in Seville. These years were important for Cortes in ways other than intellectual.

In the summer of 1506, Cortes was again in Seville at the age of twenty-two. After working there for weeks in a notary's office, he finally embarked for the Indies. Cortes settled in the new town of Azua de Compostela, which was founded on a sheltered bay on the south side of the island, sixty miles west of Santo Domingo. Once he saw the tragic decline of the population of Hispaniola, he realized that it was time to move. Cortes established himself in Cuba in the new settlement of Asuncion de Baracoa, Velazquez's first capital on the island. He was the first notary and the first man to won cattle in Cuba. He accumulated some wealth and had a daughter by an Indian girl, named Leonor Pizarro.

By 1518, Cortes was known as resourceful, capable, and good with words, in both speech and writing. The weakest side of Cortes seemed to be a military one. He had never commanded men in battle. His experience of fighting was confined to one or two discreditable incidents in Santo Domingo and Cuba. In his physique, Cortes was of medium stature with a deep chest. He only stood about five feet four. Besides of these perceived shortcomings, Cortes managed to invade and overthrow the great Aztec Empire.