Chace Crawford grew up in Plano, Texas. His father is a dermatologist and his mother is a teacher. He has one sibling, a younger sister, Candice Crawford, who is Miss Missouri USA 2008. Crawford played football and golf in high school. He graduated from Trinity Christian Academy in 2003. Although he worked as a model in Dallas, he never pursued acting. After high school, he moved to Malibu, California, to attend Pepperdine University. He struggled to identify a career path, vacillating between advertising, business and communications majors. Midway through his second year, Crawford's mother encouraged him to pursue acting. He credits her for initiating this bold move. She states that "it was a practical move", based on a career aptitude test he had taken in high school which revealed that he was best suited for a career in the performing arts. He was signed by the first talent agent that interviewed him, and then committed full-time to acting studies.