 Born in Ross, California, Beck grew up in El Sobrante, California, as an ill and bedridden child, who battled a combination of tuberculosis and spinal meningitis.In Richmond, California, while attending De Anza High School, he began a lifelong friendship with the cartoonist Roger Brand.Visiting UC Berkeley, he started submitting cartoons to the campus newspaper, "The Pelican", slipping them under the door to editors who believed he was a college student.