Brock was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky. His parents, Dan and Jenny Brock, were active in the local music scene and met as members of the Lexington Singers. His education began early with Montessori School, and he started learning violin through the Suzuki method. He graduated from Bryan Station High School in 1992 before attending Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music where he majored in Violin Performance as pupil of Dr. Myron Kartman. At Northwestern he met Erin Harper who later became his wife and the mother of their twin daughters.
As stated in the title of one of his albums, Brock's musical career, "Almost Never Was." During his sophomore year at Northwestern, while bicycling through a busy intersection, he was struck by a hit-and-run driver. Bystanders rushed to prevent him being hit again, since he was unable to stand or walk. He suffered compound-complex fractures of the femur, fibula, and tibia of his left leg, with the patella shattered into eight pieces. More than three years of surgeries and rehabilitation from the accident set back his formal studies. However, while Northwestern did not then offer a course of study for jazz violin, Brock was allowed to audit jazz classes while completing his degree. Despite the delay, he graduated in 1999.
Brock began performing professionally and recording while still a student at Northwestern, His first recordings were with the band Spazztet which also featured guitarist Aaron Weistrop. The band's first album Beautiful Impatience was later reissued under Spazztet and Weistrop's name and their second album Silent Films was released as Spazztet. For several years after the turn of the century, Brock led and recorded with his quartet, Zach Brock and the Coffee Achievers, releasing three albums between 2003 and 2007.

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