Jack Ryan (full name John Patrick Ryan) was born and raised Towson, Maryland. His father, Emmet William Ryan, was a police homicide lieutenant and Vietnam War veteran; while his mother, Catherine Burke Ryan, was a nurse practitioner. After graduating from Loyola Blakefield High School in Towson, Ryan went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He graduated from MIT with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps via the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps.