Tom's parents were Czech citizens who escaped to West Germany in 1948. They wanted to move to America but could only get permission to re-locate to Brazil where Tom was born. (Some sources list his birth date as Feb. 15, 1958.) At the age of two Tom's family moved to California. He attended the University of Oregon where he majored in telecommunications and developed his skill as an athlete. He placed first in the U.S. pole-vaulting trials for the Olympics scheduled for Moscow in 1980 but the USA subsequently boycotted that event. At a 1979 meet Tom's looks caught the attention of a photographer for "Track and Field News" who persuaded him to give modeling a try. Tom soon achieved success modeling briefs for a Calvin Klein ad in which he reclined against a white-washed wall on the Greek Isle of Santorini. The angle of the camera provocatively emphasized the briefs rather than Tom's face and the ad, when it first appeared at New York bus stops, was sometimes stolen by admirers.