Joe was born and raised in Bloomfield Hills, MI. He attended Lahser High School, overlapping in his time there with Ross Federman.

He was a film/English double major at the University of Michigan, and graduated in 2005. While at college, he formed the comedy troupe anonyMous and produced the feature film Sargasm, from which many of Tally Hall's early videos were taken. He was introduced to Rob Cantor their sophomore year through their mutual friend Andrew Laurich, a housemate of Rob and Andrew Horowitz.