Fields was born Anthony Dean Campos (28 December 1958) in Stafford, Kansas. After his parents separated when he was four, his mother remarried, and he took his stepfather's last name, Fields. He was raised in Davis, California and showed an early aptitude for gymnastics before taking up dance training. He attended Davis High School graduating in 1977. Fields then went on to college at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts on scholarship and Roland Dupree Academy of Dance, but left when paid work began to materialise for him.