Chris Carrington was born in 1985 in Vice City to Rupert and Angelica Carrington, whom were middle-class and lived comfortably on Starfish Island. Of course, on their salaries, owning a house in that area of the city seemed unrealistic, but they were related to Avery Carrington, real estate mogul who had many up-and-coming interests at the time.
Rupert worked as a mall cop, but was put out of a job in 1984 due to Vice City's struggling gang economy, as well as many shootings occurring in the mall that put a lot of stores out of business. He was given the opportunity to work as a construction worker by Avery, as the real estate tycoon began to take business interests from 1985-1986. With Rupert's stout physique, Avery figured it would be a perfect job for his brother. Avery helped them move into a house on the comfortable Starfish Island, where they assumed crime wouldn't have an effect on them due to the area being owned by Ricardo Diaz.
Thankfully for Angelica, the gang wars had no effect on her job, which was to come up with new advertisement ideas. Although her lack of creativity made her lose the job, Avery immediately offered her a job to work in stocks for his company. Angelica had willingly attempted to participate in front of the camera for advertisements, but was turned down every time. Assuming she wasn't as attractive as the actors and models that done commercials, Avery assured her that wasn't the case. Avery became closer to them after Chris was born.
Even as a kid, Chris was more mature and sophisticated than others his age. He enjoyed things such as play money and checkers, always beating his classmates in games relating to play money and economy. Although his parents found this to be a little unusual, the teachers were impressed and saw him as bright. Chris' parents felt outwitted compared to their son, and even felt left out as he got older, because he preferred spending time with Avery. They didn't question it much, as he was equally affectionate toward them and Avery.
Chris grew up an energetic and confident child, which attracted girls even before adolescence. Since Chris had been old enough to speak, he expressed concern to his uncle about having a connection with Tommy Vercetti, because he thought Tommy was temperamental and two-faced. Avery dismissed each claim, but Chris ended up growing up with a judgmental opinion on Italian-American mobsters. This turned more into hate after Avery's assassination in 1998 at the hands of Toni Cipriani.
Despite Avery's body going missing, Chris mourned his uncle for two years before deciding to get a job at one of his companies. Being declined because of his age at first, Rupert allowed it to happen because he had been heir as successor after Avery's death. At first, Chris had his doubts about the Leone Family being involved in the murder, as the relationship between Avery and Tommy Vercetti had grown apart since the middle of the 1990s. He figured if Vercetti had been responsible, the Feds would investigate and build a case. Since a nationwide gang investigation was going on at the time, he decided to leave it up to the law so he could focus on work. Chris, who had many friends in school, sacrificed them for his job at the company. Most of his peers envied him, especially his male friends, due to the fact that most of the girls that followed Chris would willingly wait for him to have free time, even if it meant wasting theirs.
Due to these sacrifices, Chris lost all of his friends because they assumed that all he cared about was working. He agreed that work was more enjoyable than company, and then suggested if they didn't respect it, their friendships had to end. After this, they considered him egotistical as well as a careless, bad friend. With Chris believing he was in the right, there was a lengthy argument before he parted from them. It stuck to his emotions on top of the fact he still missed Avery dearly. He was then lucky to have met Lauren, a young and attractive woman a little bit older than himself, who quickly admired his ambitious and hard-working personality. They became friends almost instantly, then a little bit more after Chris was 18.
The mysterious disappearance of Donald Love made Chris feel complete, believing that whatever happened was payback for his greed, gluttony, and crimes against Liberty City. Lauren comforted him upon asking her if feeling such a way was bad. After assuring him it wasn't, he felt a big sense of trust in her, labeling her as the only true friend he'd ever had. While others found him to be a workaholic, possibly prejudice, and a bad friend, Lauren saw the opposite, thus making him feel better about his insecurities. The strong like between the two would cause them to secretly engage in casual sex, but when they assumed it would hurt their business relationship, since she worked for the real estate company, they continued a mutual friendship instead.
The heir to the business was given to Chris when he was 21 years old so that his father could retire. His parents disappeared after going on a cruise outside of Florida that same year, shocking Chris and turning him into an Atheist. Although he lost all possible faith in a Higher Power, it had no effect on his personality. Lauren assured his parents could turn back up, which was the only reason he didn't go into deep depression. He continued to work in Vice City, inheriting business interests there, in Liberty City, and in Las Venturas.