Abdul-Mateen was born in 1987 in New Orleans, Louisiana, to a Muslim father and a Christian mother. He spent his childhood in the Magnolia Projects, New Orleans, and then moved to Oakland, California. He graduated in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley and then worked as a city planner in San Francisco. He always wanted to be an actor, so later he got his degree in Master of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama and worked at stage in some theaters.