Duncan Spencer was born in Los Angeles in 1911 where he was drawing as soon as he could hold a pencil. His parents allowed him to draw on the wallpaper changing it when it was full of his drawings. He studied art at the Chouinard Art School and served as an apprentice with Arthur Beaumont. During this period he was accepted into the Los Angeles Painters & Sculptors Club, which included a group of young artists who would go on painting excursions and then be critiqued by club members.