Christopher Whitelaw "Chris" Pine was born in Los Angeles, California, to Robert Pine and Gwynne Gilford; he also has an older sister, Katherine. His father was an actor who appeared in CHiPs as the sergeant Joseph Getraer. His mother was an actress and is now a practicing psychotherapist. His maternal grandparents were Anne Gwynne, a Hollywood actress, and Max M. Gilford, a Hollywood attorney. He has stated in an interview that he is "probably agnostic". He is of Welsh and Jewish descent on his mother''s side.

Pine received a bachelor''s degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002 and while he was there, he studied English at the University of Leeds in England for one year. After graduation, he studied at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.