Craig was born in Montclair NJ and spent summers in Beach Haven, NJ where he was an apprentice at Surflight Summer Theater during his teenage years. It was there that he developed his love of theater and started his acting career.
Craig changed his name to "Austin" when he was attending Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. His manager at the time thought he should have a more "all American" sounding name and he chose "Austin" because it was the capital of Texas and started with and "A" therefor making it first in an alphabetical listing of credits.