Knowledge of thermal history and/or distribution in biological tissues during laser based hyperthermia is essential to achieve necrosis of tumour/carcinoma cells. A semi–analytical model to predict sub–surface thermal distribution in translucent, soft, tissue mimics has been proposed. The model can accurately predict the spatio–temporal temperature variations along depth and the anomalous thermal behaviour in such media, viz. occurrence of sub-surface temperature peaks. Based on optical and thermal properties, the augmented temperature and shift of the peak positions in case of gold nanostructure mediated tissue phantom hyperthermia can be predicted. Employing inverse approach, the absorption coefficient of nano-graphene infused tissue mimics is determined from the peak temperature and found to provide appreciably accurate predictions along depth. Furthermore, a simplistic, dimensionally consistent correlation to theoretically determine the position of the peak in such media is proposed and found to be consistent with experiments and computations. The model shows promise in predicting thermal distribution induced by lasers in tissues and deduction of therapeutic hyperthermia parameters, thereby assisting clinical procedures by providing a priori estimates. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd