use strict;
use warnings;

use 5.014;

use Data::Dumper;

open my $inFH, q{<}, \ <<EOD or die qq{open: < HEREDOC: $!\n};
# lastname firstname age gender phone
mcgee bobby 27 M 555-555-5555
   
kincaid marl 67 M 555-666-6666
# comment
hofhazards duke 22 M 555-696-6969
EOD

my( $header, @lines ) = <$inFH>;

close $inFH or die qq{close: < HEREDOC: $!\n};

my( undef, @keys ) = split m{\s+}, $header;

foreach my $line ( @lines )
{
    next if $line =~ m{(?x) ^ \s* (?: (?-x:#) | $ )};
    my %hash;
    @hash{ @keys } = split m{\s+}, $line;

    print Data::Dumper->Dumpxs( [ \ %hash ], [ qw{ *hash } ] );
}

##</code><code>##

%hash = (
          'firstname' => 'bobby',
          'lastname' => 'mcgee',
          'phone' => '555-555-5555',
          'age' => '27',
          'gender' => 'M'
        );
%hash = (
          'firstname' => 'marl',
          'lastname' => 'kincaid',
          'phone' => '555-666-6666',
          'age' => '67',
          'gender' => 'M'
        );
%hash = (
          'firstname' => 'duke',
          'lastname' => 'hofhazards',
          'phone' => '555-696-6969',
          'age' => '22',
          'gender' => 'M'
        );