Purcell was born in Wallasey, Merseyside, England, the eldest of five children. He moved to Sydney with his family when he was two, where he was raised by his father and Irish mother, Maureen, in the Western Suburbs. Purcell attended Blaxland High School. Purcell's father, who had previously served in the Norwegian Merchant Navy, installed air-conditioning ducts for a living, but later separated from the family. Purcell's paternal grandfather, Haakon, was from Bergen, and his paternal grandmother, Martha, a New York-born Irish-American according to herself, her family and her birth certificate.[citation needed] His middle name Haakon and his other surname Myrtvedt are both Norwegian.

After quitting his high school education at Blaxland High, Purcell was employed as a landscaper.