Kopple was born in New York City, and grew up on a vegetable farm in Scarsdale, New York, the daughter of a textile executive.
Her uncle, Murray Burnett, was a co-author of Everybody Comes to Rick's, an unproduced play, that was the basis for the film, Casablanca. Her mother and maternal grandparents grew up in Peekskill, New York, the latter of whom publicly criticized the attempted censorship of singer Paul Robeson in 1949.
At Northeastern University, she studied political science and clinical psychology, and for a clinical psychology course, she made her first film, "Winter Soldiers," about Vietnam veterans, instead of writing a term paper. While working among lobotomy patients at Medfield State Hospital with Northeastern University, she decided she wanted to be a filmmaker instead.
"I realized when I was studying psychology that nobody would probably ever read what I wrote" — Barbara Kopple
Kopple's political involvement started in college with her participation in antiwar protests against the Vietnam War.