Hložek studied mathematics at the University of Pretoria and the University of Cape Town graduating in 2008. During her undergraduate studies she worked on dark energy. She completed her PhD at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 2011. Her thesis, "Probing the early universe and Dark Energy with multi-epoch cosmological data", used the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Her doctoral advisor was Jo Dunkley. During her time at Oxford, she appeared on Chris Lintott 's Pub Astronomy podcast and 365 Days of Astronomy.