Robert White was born in Washington, D.C., in 1982 to Robert "Bobby" White Sr. and his wife, Tamara ( Richards). Robert is one of five children. His father is a fourth-generation Washingtonian, and a deacon in the Catholic Church. His parents divorced when he was young, and his mother died from breast cancer in September 1990 when he was eight years old. A month after her death, he was critically injured when a semi-trailer truck side-swiped a passenger vehicle in which he was riding on New Hampshire Avenue in Montgomery County, Maryland. The automobile spun, flipped over, struck the median, flipped into the air, and landed on the hood of another car in the opposite lane. He suffered a severe skull fracture, and underwent several operations before making a full recovery.
