Named by his father after the boxer Ambrose Palmer, Ambrose was born in July 1992, and grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Preston with his sister Edith. As the children of Broderick Smith, a long-running and successful figure in Australian Rock and Roll (member of Carson, The Dingoes, Sundown), they experienced a very music-focused home environment.
As a child, Amby would go to sleep every night listening to Muddy Waters, and began playing harmonica at age seven. By eight he had recorded a covers EP titled Boy With The Blues, and would busk on the street playing harmonica inspired by other favourites like Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, or Robert Johnson.
Briefly before settling for good near Geelong in Ocean Grove when Ambrose was eight, the family moved to the regional town of Castlemaine, where he started hanging out at the local skatepark and swapping CDs to listen to on his walkman. The local skaters were into a lot of Aussie Hip-Hop, which started his love for the genre, growing from there to Cypress Hill, and into a taste for faster technical rapping such as from Busta Rhymes or Outkast. This coincided with an interest in breakdancing, which he began performing on the streets alongside harmonica. 
Having first achieved skateboarding sponsorship from his local skate shop Speaky’s by age 10, he would go on to gain several more including Volcom and Emerica shoes, Theeve trucks, Foundation and Stereo Skateboards. Despite his obvious talent and the promising start of a skating career, he would admit that ‘I don't think anyone in Geelong takes it seriously’, and most were there to get away from their home situations and just hang out at the park. This included serious interpersonal drama in his own family, so he continued to balance skating and music opportunities where he could.