Hira was born in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan to actors Mikijirō Hira and Yoshiko Sakuma. He was raised in Japan until he was 15 years old. He went to high school at Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, and then attended Brown University.
He made his theatrical debut in 2002 with Rokumeikan which was written by Yukio Mishima. He worked closely with his father Mikijirō Hira, who was also a Japanese actor. Takehiro played the role of Iago in the production of Othello with his father playing Othello. He received major recognition when he played the last shogun Yoshinobu Tokugawa in the NHK taiga drama Atsuhime. He has appeared in several films of Takashi Miike, including Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, Ace Attorney and Aku no Kyoten. He plays Natsuka Masaie in the big-budget film Nobou's Castle.
He played the role of the Player Queen in the English stage production of Hamlet in 2005, in which the title role was played by Michael Maloney. This three-month tour was received well at many places in the UK.

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