[1][2] Duret was born in Bâgé-la-Ville in the French province of Bresse (which then belonged to the Duke of Savoy) in the year 1527.
At first he was trained in academic disciplines by a private tutor, French magistrate Achilles Harlay, who took him under his wing because he demonstrated talent in many academic fields, especially the languages of Latin, Greek, and Arabic, which were integral to medicine.
[2] Philosophically, he was firmly attached to Hippocrates and the Hippocratic oath, with roots in ancient medical practice.
He also had another son, Jean Duret (1563–1629), who was physician to Queen Marie de Medici.
When Duret's daughter Catherine Arnoult de Lisle married in 1586, King Henry III attended the wedding and gave her a lucrative financial endowment, honoring Duret's services as a medical doctor.