Mark Cuban (his family name fell from Chabenisky when his grandparents emigrated from Russia to America) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. and raised in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon, in a Jewish working class. His father was a car upholsterer Norton. the first step in Cuba in the business came at age 12 when he sold garbage bags to pay for a pair of expensive basketball shoes. While in school, he held several jobs, including bartending, disco dance instructor and promoter of the lot. He paid for college by collecting and selling stamps, and once earned about $ 1100 from a chain letter.

Instead of going to school in his last years, Cuba was enrolled as a full time student at the University of Pittsburgh. After a year at the University of Pittsburgh, moved to Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, and graduated in 1981 with a Bachelor of Business Administration.