Bryan Buckley's father, a one-time Army reservist, worked as an art director in a small regional ad agency and later became chair of Boston's New England School of Art. His mother worked as a top promotional executive at Jordan Marsh department store. His parents were both activists involved in the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s. In 1976, his parents separated, and he returned to Massachusetts with his mother.
In his senior year of high school, Buckley was selected for the Short Term Institute at Phillips Andover preparatory school on a full art scholarship. He was then admitted to Syracuse University's design program; he finished his first class in advertising design there in 1985, but never enrolled in a film class during his time in college.
