Born in New York state in 1942 to a Jewish family, Edell studied zoology at Cornell University and earned his M.D. from Cornell University Medical School in 1967. He later opened a private ophthalmology practice in San Diego, California and acted as an instructor of Anatomy and a clinical instructor at the University of California, San Diego. Edell soon left private practice. He later said that he "... didn't like medicine originally...I kind of found the thing I love the most, which is really the information and communicating the information".

He spent the next several years experimenting with lifestyles that included buying and selling antiques, acting as a silversmith and goldsmith, organic farming, painting, living in a '50s-vintage bus and engaging in a self-described hand-to-mouth existence that included scavenging for food thrown out by grocery stores. During this period he describes himself as a hippie.

In the mid 1970s, Edell served as medical director of the County Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Center in Sacramento, California. He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1980, and currently lives in rural Mendocino County.

Edell maintains collections of Chinese art, Chinese snuff bottles, and rare books on anatomy. On October 5 2007, Christie's held an auction of Edell's anatomy art collection.

Edell's sister is a Hollywood costume designer.

In 1978, Edell began broadcasting regularly on KGO AM 810 radio in San Francisco. The Dr. Dean Edell radio program has been in continuous production since then, and is currently (2005) syndicated to over 200 markets by Premiere Radio Networks, and airs weekday afternoons on America's Talk on XM Radio. It is estimated to have 1.5 million unique listeners a week. The show's opening theme music (presently, in 2008)