After attending Whitgift School, Croydon, where another Commercial Judge, Lord Diplock, was also once a pupil, Sir Jeremy Cooke studied law at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and graduated with a first class degree. He began his legal career as a solicitor, but transferred to the Bar after a few years. He called by Lincoln's Inn in 1976 and practised commercial law from 7 King's Bench Walk, where he was Head of Chambers from 1999 to 2001. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1990, and was a Recorder from 1998 to 2001, when he was made a Judge of the Queen's Bench Division. He was nominated to sit in the Commercial Court in 2003, and was the Judge In Charge from 2012 to 2014. He also served as a Presiding Judge on the South Eastern Circuit. After retiring from the English Bench in 2016, he became a Judge of the Dubai International Financial Centres Courts, an International Justice of the Singapore International Commercial Court, and an international commercial arbitrator.

Sir Jeremy enjoys golf, rugby (which he played to a high amateur standard during and after his university years), and singing.