 Brought up in Bedfordshire, Duff had early career intentions of becoming an explorer, then Arsenal goalkeeper, before finally deciding on journalism, when he started writing for his local paper, the "Leighton Buzzard Observer".He read Politics at St John's College, Cambridge (2001–2004), He became editor of the student paper, "Varsity" in 2002.Before starting work in 2002, in newspapers as an admin assistant at "The Guardian", "The Daily Telegraph" and "The Observer".