Fares was born in Beirut, Lebanon. His younger brother is director Josef Fares, and he has four sisters. In 1987, when Fares was 14 years old, his family moved to Sweden, residing in Örebro.[3] They moved to escape the Lebanese Civil War and chose Sweden because they had relatives who had already lived there.[4] Fares says he learned Swedish within three months of living in Sweden.[4]