Urban hails from New Zealand, a country with a sizable film industry. During his childhood, Urban’s mother worked a company that rented out equipment such as cameras and lights to local filmmakers (his father, on the other hand, ran a leather goods store). Thanks to his mother’s career, Urban was exposed to filmmaking at a young age. Unsurprisingly, this influenced his career path. As he told The Guardian in 2022, what reeled him in wasn’t the art, but the camaraderie of its makers. Urban said:

“Every so often, when a major New Zealand feature film was completed, they would screen it for the cast and the crew on the back of the garage door. I was hanging with the crew, sitting on boxes and drinking beer and watching these movies like family. I just felt like it would be good to be a part of a family like this.”

After graduating from Wellington College in 1990, Urban briefly attended Victoria University of Wellington but soon dropped out to become an actor. Per the aforementioned Guardian interview, there were times in that first year where he regretted his choice:

“I was very adamant that I wanted to work internationally, to work with the best [caliber] of film-maker that I could, but it was probably one of the toughest years of my life. I was actually questioning if I really wanted to do this.”

Urban began to enjoy steady work on local TV programs, commercials, and on-stage, but it took a couple of years for his big break to come.