Chinn was born on January 15, 1902, to George P. Chinn (the warden of a state penitentiary) and Anna (Carlisle) Chinn (who would die eight years later). His grandfather John Pendleton Chinn, was a member of the Kentucky State Legislature. He grew up in Mundy's Landing, Kentucky. Chinn attended Braxton Hall and Millersburg Military Institute, both of which he disliked. At the Military Institute, he set a state record in the javelin throw. Though he would not graduate until 1920, in December 1918, Chinn was to have been commissioned as an officer in France, but World War I ended before he could.