Abraham Hulk was born in Shoreditch, London on 1 May 1813 the son of a Henrik Hulk, a Dutch merchant and Mary Burroughs. His brother Johannes (John) Frederick Hulk (1829-1911) was a canal and townscape painter, whom he also taught and together they founded a family of Anglo-Dutch artists. His sons Abraham Hulk Jnr (1851-1922), Hendrick Hulk (1842-1937) and William Frederick Hulk (1852-1922) and his nephew Johannes Frederik Hulk (1855–1913) also became artists.

He studied at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam under Jean Augustin Daiwaille (1786–1850) and initially focused on portraits. However, in 1833, he began travelling and visited America where he exhibited in Boston. Perhaps inspired by his travels and also influenced by the Dutch romantic painters, he started to paint seascapes. By 1834, he had returned to Holland and lived in a number of locations including Haarlem and Amsterdam. He exhibited in Holland at the Leeuwarden and The Hague from 1843.

Hulk married Maria Wilhelmina van der Meulen in Amsterdam on 2 November 1837 and together they had 5 children. In 1870, he moved the family to London where he would remain for the rest of his life and lived in Mornington Road, St Pancras. Hulk exhibited at the Society of British Artists and enjoyed considerable success in England as a marine painter. He died on 25 March 1897 in Zevenaar whilst on a visit to the Netherlands.

Examples of his work can be found in the Amsterdam Museum, Teylers Museum, Haalem, Dordrecht, and Enschede Museums.