Tom Berenger is an American film and television actor, winner of Golden Globe and Emmy awards, and an Academy Award nominee. Thomas Michael Moore was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, into an Irish Catholic family. His father worked as a typesetter at the Chicago Sun-Times. Thomas has a sister, Susan. He received the nickname Berenger from a school friend and used it in his professional career, since another actor named Thomas Moore was already a member of the Actors' Equity Association (AEA). Berenger graduated from Rich East High School in Park Forest, Illinois, in 1967, after which he studied journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia, hoping to become a sports columnist.

During his studies he was most passionate about football, but unexpectedly for himself, on a bet with a friend, he agreed to play in a student production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. The success of the play was stunning. At the end of the performance the audience gave the actors a standing ovation. This marked the beginning of his acting career after graduation. At first he acted in the Illinois Theatre, and in the 1970s he moved to New York.