Andreas Christoph Albrecht was born in California and raised in Washington, D.C., Baton Rouge and Vienna. His father was a German anthropologist. He studied chemistry at University of California, Berkeley, where he met Genia Solomon, who would later become his wife. He completed his studies in 1950. The pair moved to Washington state for graduate school. They both earned doctorates in 1954 from the University of Washington, his in chemistry under W. T. Simpson and hers in biochemistry. Subsequently, Andreas and Genia moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to work as postdoctoral researchers. His postdoctoral supervisor was Walter H. Stockmayer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Genia worked at Harvard University.
In 1956 they moved to Ithaca, New York so that he could become an instructor at Cornell University. He was later promoted to Assistant Professor (1957), Associate Professor (1962) and full Professor (1965) of physical chemistry. Genia paused her scientific pursuits to raise four children. In the 1980s she resumed her career and became a Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry at Cornell where she was honored for her teaching contributions.