Cluzel was born on January 29, 1947 and lived in Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, a suburb of Paris, France, until he was 14. His parents worked in a hardware store. He studied in the École nationale d'administration from 1970 until 1972, the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris, Panthéon-Assas University, and the University of Chicago, where he received a Master of Arts.
