De la Fuente was born in New Hartford, New York, the second of three brothers born to Filipino immigrant parents. He is of Filipino, Chinese, Malaysian, Portuguese, and Spanish ancestry. He grew up in Evanston, Illinois, and graduated from the North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka, Illinois, in 1987. He received his BA degree in Theatre Arts in 1991 from Brown University, and his MFA degree in 1994 from NYU's graduate acting program at the Tisch School of the Arts.