Goggins was born in Alabama and raised in Lithia Springs, Georgia. At the age of 10, Goggins and his mother were the state wide champion cloggers, otherwise known as Mountain Dancing. When B.B. King was on tour, Goggins and his mother opened for him at the Atlanta Fulton County Prison. He wed wife, Leanne, on the set of Shanghai Noon in Canada in 2001. Leanne Goggins suffered from severe clinical depression and tragically committed suicide by jumping from a building in Los Angeles on 12 November 2004. All his cast mates from The Shield attended Leanne's memorial service.