Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini^[6] was born on October 21, 1995,^[7][8] in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, into an artistic family.^[9][10] Her mother, Deborah Sawyer, is an American graphic designer of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage,^[11][12] and her father, Dumisani Dlamini, is a South African performer of Zulu descent,^[13] best known for starring as Crocodile in the original Broadway cast of the musical Sarafina! and the 1992 film adaptation.^[14][15] The two had a brief relationship after meeting in New York City where Dumisani performed on Broadway, but he was too busy on tour to spend time with Amala and her brother.^[12] He claims to have left his family in the US for South Africa out of homesickness, in the hopes that they would join him there,^[16] yet Doja Cat has on multiple occasions suggested that she is estranged from her father, claiming that she "never met him".^[17][18][19] Her father has denied these claims, claiming that he has a "healthy" relationship with his daughter and that her management team had tried to block all his attempts to contact her out of the fear that they might lose her.^[20][16]

Soon after her birth, Dlamini moved from Tarzana to Rye, New York, where she lived for five years with her maternal grandmother, a Jewish architect and painter.^[12][21] At the age of eight, Dlamini moved with her mother and brother to the Sai Anantam Ashram, a commune in the mountains of Santa Monica,^[12] and practiced Hinduism for four years.^[22][23] The swami and founder of the commune was American jazz musician Alice Coltrane (known by the Sanskrit name Turiyasangitananda).^[24] While living at the commune, Dlamini started wearing head-covering scarves and singing bhajans at temple,^[9] yet felt like she could not properly "be a kid" at the ashram.^[25][22] Her family then returned to California in Oak Park,^[12] where she started attending dance lessons and experienced a "sporty childhood", often skateboarding and visiting Malibu for surf camps.^[26][24] Dlamini and her brother also experienced harsh racism as they were some of the only mixed-race children in the area.^[12] She claims to have lacked interest in school from then on, instead taking a liking for dance.^[27] While at the ashram she had been dancing the style of Indian classical dance called Bharatanatyam.^[24] As she grew older and moved away from the ashram, she moved on to breakdancing classes and joined a professional poplocking troupe with whom she competed in dance battles throughout Los Angeles while still attending high school.^[10] Her aunt, a vocal coach, had given Dlamini singing lessons to help her audition for Central Los Angeles Area New High School #9, a performing arts high school in Los Angeles.^[24][12][28] She frequently skipped school to participate in online chatrooms.^[29] After becoming discouraged about her education and career path, Dlamini claims that she realized in eleventh grade that "performing and music was all [she] ever cared about."^[30] She eventually dropped out at age 16 while in her junior year.^[31] She also attributes this act to her struggles with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), saying that "it felt like I was stuck in one spot and everybody else was progressing constantly".^[12]