Beck was born in Everett, Washington and raised as a Roman Catholic. He obtained his first broadcast job as a disc-jockey for his hometown radio station at the age of 13 after winning a contest. When his mother died, Beck moved to Bellingham, where he attended high school. After graduation, he worked at radio stations in Provo, Utah, Washington D.C. and New Haven, Connecticut. Along the way, Beck married and divorced his first wife. He also struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, and went through recovery in the mid 1990s. After marrying his second wife Tania in 1999, and with the encouragement of his daughter from his first marriage, the couple joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Beck's array of media outlets have brought him wealth and popularity, along with recurring controversy and criticism. Beck's provocative and polarizing views can range from being seen as principled and revelatory, to erroneous and offensive. His supporters believe he is a Constitutional stalwart defending traditional American values from secular progressivism, while his critics contend he promotes conspiracy theories and employs incendiary rhetoric.

Glenn Lee Beck was born in Everett, Washington to William and Mary Beck, who lived in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, and sometime later moved their family to Mount Vernon, Washington where they owned and operated City Bakery in the downtown area. He is descended from German immigrants who came to the United States in the 1800s. Beck was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended private Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Mount Vernon. At age 13, he won a contest that landed him his first broadcast job as a disc-jockey for his hometown radio station, KBRC.

In 1977, William Beck filed for divorce against Mary due to her increasing alcoholism. Glenn and his older sister moved with their mother to Sumner, Washington, attending a Jesuit school in Puyallup. On May 15, 1979, his mother drowned in Puget Sound, just west of Tacoma, Washington. A man who had taken her out in a small boat also drowned. A Tacoma police report stated that Mary Beck "appeared to be a classic drowning victim", but a Coast Guard investigator speculated that she could have intentionally jumped overboard. Beck has described his mother's death as a suicide in interviews during television and radio broadcasts.

After their mother's death, Beck and his older sister moved to their father's home in Bellingham, Washington, where Beck graduated from Sehome High School in June 1982. In the aftermath of his mother's death and subsequent suicide of his stepbrother, Beck has said he used "Dr. Jack Daniel's" to cope.

At 18, following his high school graduation, Beck relocated to Provo, Utah and worked at radio station KAYK. Feeling he "didn't fit in," Beck left Utah after six months, taking a job at Washington D.C.'s WPGC in February 1983.

While working at WPGC, Beck met his first wife, Claire. The couple married and had two daughters, Mary and Hannah. Mary developed cerebral palsy as a result of a series of strokes at birth in 1988. The couple divorced in 1994 amid Beck's struggles with substance abuse. Along with being a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, Beck has been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

By 1994, Beck was suicidal, and imagined shooting himself to the music of his fellow Washingtonian, Kurt Cobain. However, he cites the help of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) in his sobriety and attended his first AA meeting in November 1994, the month he states he stopped drinking alcohol and smoking cannabis. After Beck stopped drinking alcohol, he claimed that he had gotten high every day for the previous 15 years, since the age of sixteen.

In 1996, while working for a New Haven-area radio station, Beck took a class a theology class at Yale University. The class was called "Early Christology" and it marked the extent of his post secondary education. This was followed by Beck going on a "spiritual quest" where he "sought out answers in churches and bookstores." As Beck later recounted in his books and stage performances, his first attempt at self-education involved six wide-ranging authors: Alan Dershowitz, Pope John Paul II, Adolf Hitler, Billy Graham, Carl Sagan, and Friedrich Nietzsche. During this time, Beck's Mormon friend and former radio partner Pat Gray argued in favor of the "comprehensive worldview" offered by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, an offer that Beck vehemently rejected until a few years later.

In 1999, Beck married his second wife, Tania. After they went looking for a faith on a church tour together, they "settled on Mormonism", and joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in October 1999, partly at the urging of his daughter Mary. Beck would be baptized by his old friend, and current-day co-worker Pat Gray, in an emotional ceremony. In 2008, Beck created the CD/DVD An Unlikely Mormon: The Conversion Story of Glenn Beck, detailing how he was transformed by the "healing power of Jesus Christ."