James Dyson was born in Cromer, Norfolk, England, the son of Alec and Mary Dyson. His father was a teacher. He had a relatively unremarkable childhood which was heavily impacted by his father's early death from cancer when Dyson was only 9 years old. This early experience of loss instilled in him a sense of independence and a desire to challenge the status quo.

Dyson initially studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art, before moving on to study furniture and interior design at the Royal College of Art (RCA). It was at the RCA that Dyson began to focus more on industrial design, which provided him the ability to combine engineering and design to solve day to day problems.