Cuban was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[11][12] on July 31, 1958.[13] His father, Norton Cuban, was an automobile upholsterer.[14][15][16] He described his mother, Shirley (née Feldman),[17] as someone with "a different job or different career goal every other week."[18]
Cuban is Jewish.[19] He grew up in Mt. Lebanon, an affluent suburb of Pittsburgh, in a working-class family.[20][21] His paternal grandfather changed the surname from "Chabenisky" to "Cuban" after his family emigrated from Russian Empire (modern territory of Ukraine) through Ellis Island.[22][23] His maternal grandfather was a Bessarabian Jewish immigrant[24] and his maternal grandmother was from Lithuania