An haife shi a ranar 10 ga Yuni, 1987, ɗan asalin Nijeriya ne wanda aka haifa a fagen tsaron ƙwallon Amurka. Ya buga wasan kwallon kafa a kwaleji a Louisville kuma Houston Texans ta tsara ta goma gabaɗaya a cikin 2007 NFL Draft, ƙaramin ɗan wasa a tarihin NFL da za a tsara a zagayen farko a 19. Ya kuma kasance memba na Chicago Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys, da Saskatchewan Roughriders. Okoye an haifeshi ne a jihar Anambra, Nigeria,   dan kabilar Ibo. Ya koma Huntsville, Alabama a Amurka lokacin yana ɗan shekara 12. Bayan ya kwashe makonni biyu kawai a makarantar sakandare, ya yi gwaji zuwa aji na 9. Ya fara fara wasan ƙwallon ƙafa a matsayin ɗan aji biyu a Lee High School, ba tare da sanin komai game da wasan ba kafin kocin sa na makarantar sakandare ya ba da shawarar ya je ya buga ƙwallon Madden NFL don koyo. A lokacin da ya kasance babba, ya sami nasarar girmamawa ga dukkan Stateungiyoyin Jiha na farko a matsayin mai tsaron gida da mai laushi.