David Leslie Johnson was raised in Mansfield, Ohio. He developed an early interest in storytelling and began writing plays in the second grade. He attended The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography and Cinema.

Not long after, he found himself back in his hometown working as a production assistant on The Shawshank Redemption, which was filmed on location at the historic Mansfield Reformatory, where Johnson's great-grandfather had been a prison guard. He spent the next five years as assistant to Frank Darabont, the film's Academy Award-nominated director and writer.