His father, John Dunning Boice Sr., served in the United States Army Air Corps.
His father's career necessitated frequent moves for the family during Boice's childhood including three years in France.
He went on to receive a master's degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in nuclear engineering in 1968 and the following year was commissioned as an officer in the US Public Health Service.
His doctoral thesis was entitled Breast cancer and other malignancies following repeated fluoroscopic chest examinations.
Boice retired from the Public Health Service in 1996 with the rank of Captain and became Scientific Director of the International Epidemiology Institute, a biomedical research organization founded in 1994.