Long was born in Fairfield, Connecticut. His mother, Wendy Lesniak, is an actress who has mostly appeared on stage, and his father, R. James Long, is a philosophy and Latin teacher at Fairfield University. He has two brothers: an older brother, Damian, who is a local stage actor and a Film and English teacher and Theatre Director at Weston High School, in Weston, CT; and a younger brother, Christian, who appears in the movie Accepted as a young man who fails to get accepted into college. Long was raised in a conservative, Roman Catholic family and attended Fairfield College Preparatory School, a Jesuit school in Fairfield where he was given the "Most Likely Not To Be Seen In Class" superlative. He attended Vassar College, where he was a member of the sketch comedy group Laughingstock and starred in several plays including Butterflies are Free. He left college early to pursue his career. Before leaving, he, worked at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, as an acting ins