Tom was born on 15 September 1988 and brought up in Taunton, Somerset, where his parents still live. He attended Queen's College, Taunton, where he says his interest in acting was encouraged, and in 2006 he enrolled in the two-year course at the Guildhall School of Music in Drama. Upon graduating, he had small roles in
Shameless (2004) and
Misfits (2009), but came to prominence in the Anglo-French production
Jo (2013) and has since enjoyed sizable roles in television's
Grantchester (2014) and
The Royals (2015), in the latter playing a less-than-scrupulous bodyguard.