Peter Lawrence Boyle Jr. was born on October 18, 1935 in Norrishtown, Pennsylvania, America, to a teenage mother, Alice Boyle, and his name is father, Francis Xavier Boyle.

The Jorgensens were married Loraine Alterman Boyle. He has two child named Lucy Boyle & Amy Boyle. He has one sibling named Alice Duffy. He was died on December 12, 2006. 

Peter Boyle went on to graduate from La Salle University. He was originally focused on a career in the church and spent three years as a novice in the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, but ultimately chose to shift his focus. He joined the United States Navy, but had a nervous breakdown, and returned to civilian life. He began his acting career in New York, and then went on to study with Second City Improve in Chicago.

After graduation from La Salle University, Boyle gained acclaim for his first starring role, playing the title character, a bigoted New York City factory worker, in the 1970 movie Joe. The film's release was surrounded by controversy over its violence and language. During this time, Boyle became close friends with actress Jane Fonda, and with her he participated in many protests against the Vietnam War. After seeing people cheer at his role in Joe, Boyle refused the lead role in The French Connection (1971), as well as other film and television roles that he believed glamorized violence. However, in 1974, he starred in a film based on the life of murdered New York gangster "Crazy" Joey Gallo, called Crazy Joe.

Boyle's paternal grandparents were Irish immigrants, and his mother was of mostly French and British Isles descent. He was raised Catholic and attended St. Francis de Sales School and West Philadelphia Catholic High School for Boys. After graduating high school in 1953, Boyle spent three years in formation with the De La Salle Brothers, a Roman Catholic teaching order. He lived in a house of studies with other novices earning a bachelor of arts degree from La Salle University in Philadelphia in 1957, but left the order because he did not feel called to religious life.