Evelyn B. Man was born in Lawrence, New York, but she grew up in North Stonington, Connecticut. Man's father, Edward Man, was an attorney from New York City and her mother was Mary Hewitt Man. 
Man  graduated from Wheeler High School, and then, in 1925, she graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in chemistry. Man graduated from Yale with a doctorate degree in physiological chemistry in 1932.