 Mao was born on 12 March 1967.His father, Dusman Okee Sr. (5 January 1942 – 3 January 2016), was Acholi and his mother was a Munyankole.Mao attended Mwiri Primary School in Jinja and briefly went to Wairaka College in Jinja District before attending Namilyango College, a prestigious all-boys boarding high school in Mukono District from 1982 until 1988.