Sushanth was born as Sushanth Anumolu on 18 March 1986 in Hyderabad. He is the son of Anumolu Sathya Bhushana Rao and Naga Susheela Akkineni. He is the grandson of Akkineni Nageswara Rao and the nephew of Nagarjuna. Actors Sumanth, Naga Chaitanya and Akhil Akkineni are his cousins. Sushanth completed his schooling from Hyderabad Public School and completed his bachelor's degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He worked at United Technologies and Schlumberger as an Electrical Engineer before his acting career. Sushanth attended the Kreating Charakters Training School, Mumbai for a short acting course along with his cousin Naga Chaitanya.