Allan Pineda Lindo was born in Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines. His African-American father, an airman stationed at Clark Air Base, left the family shortly after his birth; his Filipino mother, Cristina Pineda, raised him and his six younger siblings as a single mother. As a child, Pineda would make an hour-long jeepney trip to and from his school and helped his family subsist by farming sweet potatoes, corn, sugar cane, and rice. The Pearl S. Buck Foundation, an organization that finds healthier living environments for young abandoned or orphaned American children, matched him with a sponsor named Joe Ben Hudgens, a lawyer, through a dollar-a-day program.