He is the son of the Tory politician Richard Luce. Luce studied at various boarding schools around Sussex. He graduated in politics, philosophy and economics from New College, Oxford at the University of Oxford, and did his post graduation degree in newspaper journalism from City University, London .

His first job was as a correspondent for The Guardian at Geneva. In 1995 he joined the Financial Times, London. He first reported for the Financial Times from the Philippines after which he took one year sabbatical working in Washington DC as the speech writer to Larry Summers, then US treasury secretary (1999-2001) during the Clinton administration .

He is the author of the book In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India (2006).