His parents were José de la Luz Hernández and Amadita Rodríguez. He has a brother, Héctor Hernández. He was left fatherless, and his mother took him to Mexico City in 1956. He studied accounting, although his vocation was acting. He married Edith Sánchez, with whom he became the father of Aarón and Edith.

He debuted as a theater actor in the 1950s, in the play Las manos sucias, by Jean-Paul Sartre, with the participation of Tere Velázquez, Carlos Bracho and Sergio Barrios. Once settled in Mexico City, he entered the Instituto Cinematográfico, Teatral y Radio-Televisión, of the Asociación Nacional de Actores (ANDA), directed by Andrés Soler. In 1958, he participated in another festival, with the ICT's Moncell group, where he starred in El gesticulador, a play by Rodolfo Usigli.