Salamone was born near Chernobyl, the site of a nuclear accident that took place 14 months prior to his birth. As a result, Salamone was born with deformed legs both of which were amputated at the Children's Institute of Prosthetics in Moscow when he was only four years old. Orphaned, he was adopted by the Salamones, a couple from Buffalo, New York, and moved to the United States at the age of six.