"I have never had a hug before" This indicate that you have not been hugged before and are continuing to be hug-less. "I had never had a hug before" This indicates that you had never been hugged but you have now received a hug. So, the second sentence is more suitable.

1. So far in my life, I HAVE never had even one hug from my mother. My wish for 2013 is that she hug me for the first time. 2. I am so happy. Yesterday my mother hugged me for the first time. I HAD never had a hug from my mother BEFORE yesterday. So yesterday changed my whole life.

yeah.. anyway both of them have connection to each other because they're in the past, so it does make sense :) But some sentence could be : Simple Present + Simple Past Exp: ''So you are the one who spoke to her on the phone last night ?''. It's making sense huh ? Native speakers, please do revise if I make a mistake here. Thanks :)

dont be sad my friend..i have never had a hug before too :pp When our teacher were teaching us English; they told that "past perfect tense" is generally used with "past tense". and the people prefer that binary when they want to express time differences between to situation. i.e. I started to work after i had graduated (past tense + past perfect tense)..im not sure whether they were right, but it seems logical hıh?