Kinsey was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, and educated at Bowdoin College and Harvard. He was professor of zoology (from 1920) and director of the Institute for Sex Research, Indiana University, which he helped found, from 1942 until his death.

Kinsey's researches on human sexual behavior, published as Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953), have attracted much interest and some controversy. His work demonstrated that there was considerable variation in behavior in all social classes and helped to dispose of certain erroneous ideas, for example with regard to juvenile sexual activity and homosexuality. Even though based on many (about 18,500) carefully conducted personal interviews, Kinsey's findings have been criticized for sampling limitations and the general unreliability of personal communication in this sphere of human activity.