Kaushal was born on 16 May 1988 in a chawl in suburban Mumbai to Sham Kaushal, a stuntman and subsequent action director in Hindi films.[1][2][3] His younger brother, Sunny, is also an actor.[4] His family is Punjabi.[5] Kaushal has described himself as a "regular kid who was interested in studying, playing cricket and watching movies".[2] His father was keen on his son having a stable career and thus, Kaushal pursued an engineering degree in electronics and telecommunications from Mumbai's Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology.[6] During an industrial visit to an IT company, he realised that an office job would be unsuitable for him and began aspiring to have a career in film.