Dean Martin was born on 7th of June, 1917. His parents were Italian immigrants and their names were Gaetano and Angelina Corcetti. The original name of Dean Martin was Dino Paul Corcetti. He had and elder brother named Bill. Dean didn't know any other language than Italian until he started his school. Dean started his school at the age of five. The name of his school was Steubenville High School. Some people have written that Dean was graduated from the same school which isn't right. Actually he left his school in 10th grade. He quoted the reason in his words as " It was because I thought that I was smarter than my teacher" .

After he had quit his school, Dean Martin did a lot of small jobs. He found a job as a copier in a casino, he also delivered liquor to people, he did work as a blackjack dealer and he also worked in a steel mill.

He also did boxing to earn money. He won 12 out of his 13 matches in welterweight category. He started boxing at the age of 15 but quit later due to injuries including a broken nose which was fixed later in his life, he had a split lips permanently and broken knuckles as he could not afford tape which was used to wrap hands of the boxers. He named himself as "Kid Crochet" in his boxing career. For some time Dean Martin shared room with Sonny King who liked Dean. According to witnesses, Dean Martin and Sonny King held matches in their room with bare knuckles and they used to fight until one of them was knocked out. People paid them for watching thee matches.

After some time of his life, Dean Martin gave up boxing and worked as a stickman and also as a gamble table organizer in an illegal casino. This casino was behind a tobacco shop in which he had worked as a stock boy. He worked in the casino for sometime to earn money for his bread and butter but quit the job of casino later.