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Born in Burlington, Iowa, Warner played football at Regis High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and later went on to attend the University of Northern Iowa. At UNI, Warner was third on the Panthers' depth chart until his senior year. When Warner was finally given the chance to start, he was named the Gateway Conference's Offensive Player of the Year.

With no NFL teams willing to give him a chance, Warner turned to the Arena Football League in 1995 and signed with the Iowa Barnstormers. Warner was named to the AFL's First-team All-Arena in both 1996 and 1997 after he led the Barnstormers to Arena Bowl appearances in both seasons. Warner's performance was so impressive that he would be named twelfth out of the twenty Best Arena Football players of all time.

Before the 1997 Arena season, he requested and got a tryout with the Chicago Bears , but an injury to his throwing elbow caused by a spider bite sustained during his honeymoon prevented him from attending.

Following his college career, Warner went undrafted in the 1994 NFL Draft. He was invited to try out for the Green Bay Packers' training camp in 1994, but was released before the regular season began; Warner was competing for a spot against Brett Favre, Mark Brunell and former Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer. While Kurt was with the Green Bay Packers, the head coach was Mike Holmgren and the quarterbacks coach was Steve Mariucci, the San Francisco 49ers head coach in 1999. After Warner was released was little changed, Mariucci had told him that he knew Warner had enormous potential but was not ready to be an NFL quarterback yet Article Biz_Watch Superbowl Online_518.

It was at this time that Warner stocked shelves at a Hy-Vee grocery store in Cedar Falls for $5.50 an hour. This story was often used as the starting point when telling of his rise to NFL stardom in 1999. A religious conversion around 1997 is also mentioned by him. Warner also returned to Northern Iowa and worked as a graduate assistant coach with the football team, all the while still hoping to get another tryout with an NFL team.