Hunziker's father, Edwin Hunziker, was an American veteran of the Korean War who had spent 12 years stationed in South Korea with the United States Forces Korea, and while living there, met Hunziker's Korean mother, Jong Nye, a South Korean citizen. The two later moved to the United States, settling in Tacoma, Washington, where they had three children, and Hunziker's father worked in a variety of jobs including as a bus driver and cement layer. Hunziker's father developed a drinking problem, and in 1974 Hunziker's father and mother divorced. Hunziker moved with his mother to Anchorage, Alaska, where he spent most of his childhood with various relatives of his mother's. Hunziker and his mother eventually moved back to Tacoma, where she opened the Olympus Hotel. In 1988 Hunziker graduated from Stadium High School in Tacoma. He went on to attend colleges in Yakima and South Seattle on a football scholarship, but began drinking and using drugs, and did not graduate.
