Christopher Lawford is the first child of Peter and Pat Kennedy Lawford, born on March 29, 1955. Lawford attended Tufts and Georgetown Universities, and went to Boston College Law School, graduating in 1983. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a drug problem put Lawford in a clinic for a time, but he was able to straighten out his life and continue with his education. While living in the Boston area, he set up a clinic to treat opiate dependency. He has also served as a lecturer in psychiatry for Harvard Medical School.