Josh was born in 1971 and raised in Kew, where he spent many of his formative years and where his grandparents lived for more than 30 years. Josh currently lives in Hawthorn with his wife, Amie.

As a primary school student Josh attended Bialik College in Hawthorn and then completed his secondary schooling at Mt Scopus College in Burwood.

After completing the HSC, Josh deferred the start of his university studies by a year to play tennis full time. During this period he trained at a tennis academy in Queensland and competed at satellite tournaments throughout Australia as well as other tournaments in Switzerland and Germany.

Returning to Australia, Josh began his tertiary studies at Monash University where he undertook Law and Economics degrees, graduating with Honours in both. During his time at Monash, Josh was an active member of the student body and was elected to the Presidency of the Law Students Society. He was also chosen to represent Australia in tennis at the World University Games, in 1991 in Sheffield, England and again in 1993 in Buffalo, United States.

At university Josh was involved in a number of community activities. He was both a volunteer reader for radio station 3RPH (Radio for the Print Handicapped) and a volunteer coach for the Kids Tennis Foundation where he taught tennis to young people with an intellectual disability. In 2003 Josh accepted an invitation from the Kids Tennis Foundation's Chairman Paul McNamee to join the board, and has been a member ever since. Josh also continues to speak regularly at local forums and international dialogues.

After Monash, Josh undertook his articles of clerkship at the law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques. He was offered both a Fulbright scholarship to the United States and a scholarship to Oxford University from the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom. He accepted the Commonwealth Scholarship to Oxford University where he completed a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) degree in International Relations. He was twice awarded a Full Blue as a member of the Oxford tennis team with whom he toured to Hong Kong and Morocco.

After Oxford Josh returned to Mallesons and was subsequently admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria. Josh then went to Canberra where he worked as a ministerial adviser between 1999-2004. He worked in succession as an assistant adviser for the then Attorney General, The Hon. Daryl Williams QC, as an adviser and later senior adviser to the Foreign Minister The Hon. Alexander Downer and finally as a senior adviser to the Prime Minister, The Hon. John Howard.

After leaving Canberra Josh spent a month as a jackaroo on a sheep station in South Australia before joining Deutsche Bank as a Director of Global Banking in January 2005. Later that year Josh took leave to complete a Masters of Public Administration (MPA) at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, before returning in 2006 to Deutsche Bank to resume his duties in the Melbourne office.

Josh has a keen interest in public policy debates having been interviewed on radio and television as well as writing a number of opinion editorials for publications including The Age, The Herald Sun, The Australian and The Australian Financial Review.

Away from politics he has developed an interest in photography having held his first exhibition in 2008 at a gallery in Richmond.

Josh is honoured to represent the Kooyong community and promises to be a strong voice on key local, national and international issues in the Federal Parliament.