Born August 7, 1960, in New York City, David remembers playing baseball at St. Mark's Church...in the graveyard. David's father, a Brooklyn-born Russian-Jew, Amram (Marty) Ducovny, who "took the 'h' out of our last name because he was tired of having it mispronounced", was a writer who worked as a publicist for a human-rights and cultural organization. David's mother, Margaret (Meg) Duchovny, was born and raised in Scotland, who ran the lower grades at Grace Church School in East Villiage. David's parents divorced in 1972, after which, his father moved to Paris to write novels and his mother put the 'h' back in their name.
David's older brother, Daniel Ducovny, is a TV commericial director in Los Angeles and their sister Laurie Duchovny/Ducovny taught at the St. Anne's parochial school in Brooklyn.