Hydrogen uptake and embrittlement characteristics of a cold-drawn austenitic stainless steel wire were investigated. Slow strain rate testing and fracture surface analysis were applied to determine the hydrogen embrittlement resistance, providing an apparent decrease in resistance to hydrogen embrittlement for a 50% degree of cold deformation. The hydrogen content was assessed by thermal desorption and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy establishing a correlation between the total absorbed hydrogen and the intensity of near-surface hydrogen. The sub-surface hydrogen content of the hot-rolled specimen was determined to be 791 wt.ppm.