Jordan Belfort was born in 1962 in the Bronx, New York City, and raised in Bayside, Queens. After graduating from American University with a degree in biology, he briefly enrolled in dental school before pursuing other ventures. He initially worked as a door-to-door meat and seafood salesman, a business that eventually failed, leading him to file for bankruptcy at 25.

He then became a trainee stockbroker at L.F. Rothschild before being laid off after the Black Monday crash of 1987.