Dr Cook was born in Sydney, schooled at Newington College and studied / graduated in Medicine at the University of Sydney in 1982. His fellowship with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in Neurosurgery was awarded in 1993 after 10 years of post-graduate training in Neurosurgery. He has been in practice as a Consultant Neurosurgeon since 1993 having trained in Sydney, Perth, London and Birmingham Alabama. He was senior registrar at Atkinson Morley’s Hospital / The Children’s Hospital at Great Ormond Street in London (UK) for two years and was a fellow in Neurosurgery at the University of Alabama (USA) before returning to Sydney to work at Royal North Shore Hospital and North Shore Private Hospital as a VMO for the past 25 years.