Cuban was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,[3][4] on July 31, 1958.[5] His father, Norton Cuban, was an automobile upholsterer.[6][7][8] Cuban described his mother, Shirley (née Feldman[9]), as someone with "a different job or different career goal every other week."[10]
Cuban is Jewish,[11] and grew up in Mount Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh, in a working-class family.[12][13] His paternal grandfather changed the surname from "Chabenisky" to "Cuban" after his family emigrated from Russia through Ellis Island.[14][15] His maternal grandparents were Romanian Jewish immigrants, according to Mark's brother Brian,[16] though Mark has claimed his maternal grandmother was from Lithuania.