Seth Edwards was born in 1946 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the son of an Episcopalian missionary. Around age two, Edwards moved with his family to Liberia, where his father served as a medical missionary. During their time in Liberia, Edwards and his family would occasionally vacation with his grandparents in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Edwards stayed in Liberia with his family until middle school, when he enrolled at a boarding school in Garden City, Long Island. Edwards graduated from Cornell University via a university in Liberia, which he attended on a Cornell exchange program. Soon after, Edwards was drafted into the United States Army and served in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1969. Upon returning to America, Edwards joined JP Morgan Chase Bank. At the time of the 2008 interview, Edwards was a vice president within the bank's Global Philanthropy, Community Relations division.