Dushku was born in Watertown, Massachusetts. Dushku's father is Albanian-American and her mother has Danish ancestry. She was raised a Mormon, the faith of her mother but she is not actively practicing. She has three older brothers, Aaron, Benjamin (Ben) (born February 5, 1976), and Nathan (Nate) (born June 8, 1977, in Boston, Massachusetts), the last of whom is also an actor and a model. Her parents divorced when she was still an infant.