Glenn Louis Kirschner was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 2, 1961, and raised in New Jersey. He graduated from Point Pleasant Borough High School in 1979. Kirschner attended Washington and Lee University, where he played football for four seasons and was elected team captain in his senior year, earning Old Dominion Athletic Conference all-conference honors and being named a first-team Kodak All-American. He was inducted into Washington and Lee University's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009.