Sam was born on January 24, 1948, in Brooklyn, New York City. Smith attended James Madison High School in Brooklyn and Pace University in New York City, graduating with a bachelor's degree in accounting in 1970. He worked two years on the auditing staff of Arthur Young & Co. and then earned a master's degree in journalism from Ball State University. He is in the journalism Hall of Fame at Ball State. He was a staff and investigative reporter for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel and congressional reporter and managing editor for States News Service in Washington, D.C. He then became press secretary to Connecticut U.S. Senator Lowell Weicker. He left Weicker's staff to join the Chicago Tribune in November 1979.