Guy Edward Pearce was born in Ely, Cambridgeshire. His mother, Anne Cocking , and his father, Stuart Pearce, was a New Zealand-born air force test pilot who died when Pearce was eight. When he was three years old, Pearce moved to Geelong, Victoria, where his mother ran a deer farm. He attended the Geelong College, a local private school, and was a member of the GSODA Junior Players. From the age of 15 to 22, he was a competitive amateur bodybuilder