Alex Yemenidjian is of Armenian ethnicity, and was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His maternal grandparents lived in Van, Ottoman Empire and during the Armenian genocide, they fled to Argentina. His paternal grandparents were from the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, and they escaped during the Armenian genocide to Greece and then ultimately settled in Argentina. Yemenidjian's father was a shoemaker in Buenos Aires. In 1968, Alex Yemenidjian and his family moved to the United States when he was a teenager. After attending Ferrahian Armenian School, Yemenidjian attained a bachelor's degree in business administration and accounting from California State University, Northridge, a master's degree in business taxation from the University of Southern California, and was adjunct professor of taxation at the USC Graduate School of Business.
