- Colin won a 2002 Young Hollywood Award for Young Hollywood Award One to Watch - Male.
- Colin's last name at birth was Dillingham, as it was his mother's maiden name, but it was later changed to Hanks after his parents married in January of 1978.
- Colin has one sister, Elizabeth Hanks, who is five years younger than him, and they have the same parents, Tom Hanks and Samantha Lewes.
- Colin was nominated for a 2002 MTV Movie award for Best Breakthrough Male Performance for his role in the 2002 film Orange County.
- When Colin first went to casting calls, he introduced himself with a different last name, so that he wouldn't get a role just because of his famous father, Tom Hanks.
- Colin is 6'1" tall.
- Colin was named one of the 25 Hottest Bachelors by People Magazine in 2003.
- Colin auditioned for a role in director Cameron Crowe's film Elizabethtown but lost the role to actor, Orlando Bloom.
- Colin has brown hair and brown eyes.
- Roswell fans were devastated when Colin's character Alex (much adored by the fans) was killed off. Many letter of protest were written, and petitions were signed. Sadly, it didn't make any difference, as Colin wanted to leave the series for a film career.
- Colin prefers boxers--unless he has to dress up; then he wears boxer-briefs.
- Colin has two half-brothers from his father, Tom Hanks's second marriage to actress Rita Wilson: Chester Hanks (born 1990) and Truman Hanks (born 1995).
- Colin is good friends with actor David Krumholtz and has appeared on David's TV series NUMB3RS several times.
- Colin attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
- Colin auditioned for the role of Anakin Skywalker for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, and was one of George Lucas's top two front runners. He eventually lost out to Hayden Christensen because Hayden was "newer" to the industry.
- Colin used to date actress Busy Philipps.
- Colin (on keeping his last name): It's a total catch-22. The way I see it is maybe I've got more balls, you know, since I didn't change my name. I mean it was never a big thing for me. I paid it about two seconds worth of thought and then that was really sort of it. Ultimately it really doesn't matter. And also then I think it doesn't confuse people so much 'cause I remember going 'Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez are brothers?' I didn't want to come up with some generic Johnny Bravo type name. I'm not that cool, so I might as well stick with my birth name.
- Colin: I collect watches because I'm always late, and I need to know exactly how late I'm going to be - in order to come up with a good excuse.
