[3][4] Cunningham was born in Birmingham and is from Kings Heath, a suburb in the south of the West Midlands city.

[8][9] Cunningham was regularly bullied at primary school for participating in gymnastics and was subjected to name-calling.

Labelled "gay" and accused of taking up a "girls' sport", he has said he felt humiliated and hid in his mother's car, refusing to go into school.

[13] Cunningham was a member of the British team for the 2017 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Cluj-Napoca, Romania in April 2017, advancing to the floor exercise and vault event finals.

[23] Cunningham sustained a leg injury at the 2019 European Championships in Poland, which left him on an 18-week rehabilitation programme to be able to walk again.

Shortly thereafter he was selected for his first Irish team at the 2022 European Men's Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Munich.