 Oden was born in Columbus, Indiana in 1967.He graduated from Albert P. Brewer High School in 1985 and attended John C. Calhoun State Community College in Decatur, Alabama, where he studied English and History.Oden began writing at the age of 14, and his first published work was a role-playing game called "Rogue Warrior" in 1986—only memorable, Oden says, for the artwork supplied by a teen-aged Cully Hamner.