Born as Hugh Edward Douglas, Jr. in Miami, Florida, Kyan Douglas was raised in Tampa and Tallahassee. He has a sister, Kelli (who first taught him about styling hair). After high school he moved first to Dallas, where he studied philosophy at Brookhaven College and first became interested in religion and the healing arts. He then moved to Austin, where he had initially planned to pursue his interest in acting by studying drama at the University of Texas at Austin, though he was precluded by his extreme shyness. In his mid-twenties he moved to New Orleans, where he earned a degree in TV production and theater studies at Loyola University. In 1996 three of Douglas' close friends were murdered in a restaurant robbery where both they and Douglas worked. This motivated him to leave New Orleans.