HinweiseSumner was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England to Audrey and Ernest Sumner, a milkman, and raised a Roman Catholic. From an early age, he knew that he wanted to be a musician. He attended the University of Warwick, but did not graduate. From 1971 to 1974, he attended Northern Counties Teacher Training College. He is the oldest of 4 children and has a brother, Philip, and two sisters, Angela and Anita. Philip owns a pub in Newcastle, Angela works for British Airways, and Anita is an artist.

Before playing music professionally, Sumner worked as a ditch digger and a primary school teacher. His first music gigs were wherever he could get a job. He played with local jazz bands such as the Phoenix Jazzmen and Last Exit. It is most likely that he gained his nickname while with the Jazzmen. He once performed wearing a black and yellow striped jersey that fellow band member Gordon Solomon had noted made him look like a bumblebee, thus he became Sting. He uses Sting almost exclusively, except on official documents.

His 1991 album The Soul Cages was dedicated to his recently deceased father and included the top 10 song "All this Time" and the Grammy winning "Soul Cages". The album eventually went Platinum. The following year, he married Trudie Styler and was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in music from Northumbria University.