Luke Humphries is the 2024 PDC World Champion, nicknamed Cool Hand, and he spent close to two years as world number one. Here is where the nickname comes from, the anxiety he has talked about openly, how he climbed to the top, and his rivalry with Luke Littler.
Who is Luke Humphries? A former roofer from England
Humphries was born in Reading, England, in 1995 and started playing darts in 2010. Before turning pro he worked as a roofer for six years, and only went full-time after earning a PDC Tour Card in 2018. At his first World Championship in 2019 he reached the quarter-finals, and that same year he won the PDC World Youth Championship. He now lives in Crewe with his fiancée Kayley and their children, throws Red Dragon 22g signature darts, and walks on to "I Predict a Riot" by Kaiser Chiefs.
Where the "Cool Hand Luke" nickname comes from
It comes from the 1967 Paul Newman film Cool Hand Luke, which happens to share his first name. The nickname stuck as his stage image: however tight the score, he looks calm. But he has said that calm took a lot of work to get to.
Luke Humphries on anxiety
Humphries has spoken about his mental health more than once. In 2019, during a European Tour event in Germany (the German Darts Open), he had an anxiety attack. He said afterwards that he "felt like my career was over", and the pressure was so heavy that he thought about quitting darts. The best thing he did, he says, was see a doctor and be honest about how he felt, with his parents backing him the whole way.
In a September 2026 interview with Sky Sports, he said he still has anxious moments now and then, but knows how to handle them better: "I don't go into a spiral, and I think that's the most important thing." He also believes that without asking for help back then, he would never have reached the top.
2024 world champion and world number one
2023 was his breakthrough year. He won his first major, the World Grand Prix, then added the Grand Slam of Darts and the Players Championship Finals. In the World Championship final on 3 January 2024 he beat a 16-year-old Luke Littler 7-4 to take the title and the world number one spot, which he held until November 2025. He won the World Matchplay in 2024 and the Premier League in 2025, becoming only the fourth player to win the World Championship, World Matchplay and Premier League, after Phil Taylor, Gary Anderson and Michael van Gerwen.
Humphries vs Littler: the two Lukes
Since that final, they have become the most compared pair in darts. In the second half of 2025 Littler beat him in final after final and took world number one in November. In 2026 he lost to Littler again in the Masters and Premier League finals, until he finally hit back 8-7 in the US Darts Masters final in June. Off the oche they are teammates, and they won the 2026 World Cup together for England. The full head-to-head is in the Littler vs Humphries rivalry.
Luke Humphries now
As of September 2026, Humphries is world number two and has already won several titles this year, including the Belgian Darts Open in September, where he beat Jonny Clayton 8-6 in the final. At the last World Championship he lost 1-5 to Gian van Veen in the quarter-finals. At the 2027 PDC World Championship, which starts this December, he will be one of the most watched names after Littler.
For more top players, see Europe's steel-tip stars. A player who nearly quit because of anxiety went on to become world champion, which says asking for help when you are stuck is nothing to be ashamed of. If you feel like throwing a few yourself, AI DARTS is open 24 hours. The menu is here.