Andrew Mark Cuomo was born in New York, N.Y., on Dec. 6, 1957. As a teenager in Queens, he put up posters to help his father campaign for state office. Andrew graduated from Fordham University in 1979, the year in which his father became New York lieutenant governor. Father and son shared an apartment in Albany while Andrew studied at Albany Law School. He completed his law degree in 1982 and proceeded to run the campaign that made his father governor. For the next two years Andrew worked as his father's senior advisor in Albany, for a salary of one dollar a year.

In 1984 he moved to New York City, where he became an assistant district attorney and a partner in the law firm of Blutrich, Falcone and Miller. His interests focused on the problems of the city's homeless population. He founded an organization called Housing Enterprises for the Less Privileged, or HELP, to provide transitional housing for people living on the streets. He continued to advise his father from a distance and managed his successful 1986 gubernatorial reelection campaign.

Andrew Cuomo's efforts for the homeless led to his appointment in 1991 to chair the New York City Commission on the Homeless. After Clinton's election as president in November 1992, Cuomo went to Washington to help with the transition to the new administration and stayed to work on housing at the federal level. In May 1993 the Senate confirmed his appointment to HUD as assistant secretary for Community Planning and Development. Working closely with Vice-President Al Gore, Cuomo introduced new government policies to move the homeless into permanent housing with the help of transitional housing and expanded social services.

Cuomo drew on his experience running campaigns for his father to prepare Gore for his 1996 race against Republican vice-presidential hopeful Jack Kemp. The November election returned Clinton and Gore to office, and on Dec. 20, 1996, Clinton nominated Cuomo to head the department of Housing and Urban Development.