 Sommer was born in Toledo, Ohio, and raised in Stillwater, Minnesota, where he was educated at Oakland Junior High School and Stillwater Area High School.He then went on to attend Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, where he majored in theater and sang in The Concordia Choir.Sommer studied improvisation at the Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis, and started an improv group, the Slush Puppies, in Moorhead.