Born to immigrant parents from Southern Italy, Colacurcio was the oldest of nine children. He worked on his father's vegetable farm in Seattle. Colacurcio dropped out of school before completing the eighth grade and started a produce-hauling business. Colacurcio later worked as a butcher, farm hand, truck driver, and pulp mill worker. By age 18, he had opened his first trucking company. In 1943, Colacurcio was convicted for having sex with an underage girl. He served more than a year at the Monroe State Reformatory (now known as the Washington State Reformatory).