Cousteau sinh tại [[Saint-André-de-Cubzac]], [[Gironde]], là con trai của ông bà Daniel và Élisabeth Cousteau. Ông có một người anh trai là [[Pierre-Antoine Cousteau|Pierre-Antoine]]. Cousteau completed his preparatory studies at the prestigious [[Collège Stanislas de Paris|Collège Stanislas]] in Paris. In 1930 he entered the [[École Navale]] and graduated as a gunnery officer. After an automobile accident cut short his career in naval aviation, Cousteau indulged his interest in the sea.
In [[Toulon]], where he was serving on the ''Condorcet'', Cousteau carried out his first underwater experiments, thanks to his friend [[Philippe Tailliez]] who in 1936 lent him some Fernez underwater [[goggle]]s, predecessors of modern [[diving mask]]s.<ref>The [http://www.cousteau.org/jyc.html Cousteau Foundation] page about "The Captain" confirms Cousteau biography as written here.</ref> He later worked his way up the ranks as he became more famous and more useful to the navy. Cousteau also belonged to the information service of the [[French Navy]], and was sent on missions to [[Shanghai]] and [[Japan]] (1935–1938) and in the [[USSR]] (1939).{{Citation needed|date=June 2009}}
On 12 tháng 7 năm 1937 he married [[Simone Melchior]], with whom he had two sons, [[Jean-Michel Cousteau|Jean-Michel]] (born 1938) and [[Philippe Cousteau|Philippe]] (1940–1979). His sons took part in the adventure of the [[Calypso (ship)|Calypso]]. In 1991, one year after his wife Simone's death from cancer, he married [[Francine Cousteau|Francine Triplet]]. They already had a daughter Diane Cousteau (born 1980) and a son Pierre-Yves Cousteau (born 1982), born during Cousteau's marriage to his first wife.
