Cousins was born in West Hoboken, New Jersey, which later in 1925 became Union City. At age 11, he was misdiagnosed with tuberculosis and placed in a sanatorium. Despite this, he was an athletic youth,[1] and he claimed that as a young boy he “set out to discover exuberance.”
Cousins attended Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx, New York City, graduating on February 3, 1933. He edited the high school paper, "The Square Deal," where his editing abilities were already in evidence.[2] Cousins received a bachelor's degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City.