Haakon served in the Royal Norwegian Navy including getting his first-level officer's education at the Norwegian Naval Academy, followed by a year aboard missile torpedo boats and other vessels. He then went abroad, receiving a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1999. Haakon later attended lectures at the University of Oslo and the London School of Economics, as well as completing the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affair's civil servant introductory course in 2001.

He married single mother Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby on August 25, 2001, who is since then known as Crown Princess Mette-Marit. Their daughter, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, second in succession to the Norwegian throne, was born January 21, 2004.