Rubio's family moved from Cuba to the US in the 1950s. He was born in 1971 in Miami, Florida. He has one brother and two sisters. Rubio's family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada during the 1980s but they later came back to Miami. After high school he stayed in Florida and went to the University of Florida, where he graduated in 1993 with a political science degree. After that he went to law school at the University of Miami, where he got a doctorate in law.