Frederick A. ("Rick") Boop was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 28, 1956, as the son of a neurosurgeon in training. His father subsequently became a neurosurgeon in the Navy prior to accepting an academic position at the University of Arkansas in 1969.

Rick Boop graduated from the University of Arkansas with honors in English. He worked at Arkansas Childrens Hospital as an EEG Technician, performing intraoperative electro-corticography for Dr. Herman Flanigan who performed epilepsy surgery at that time. It was during this time period that he developed an interest in treating children as well as an interest in doing surgery for epilepsy. Subsequent to medical school at the University of Arkansas, he entered neurosurgical internship and residency at the University of Texas in San Antonio. Upon completion of residency in 1989, he undertook six months of fellowship in epilepsy surgery with Robert Maxwell at the University of Minnesota. He then joined the Arkansas Childrens Hospital for six months of fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery under the tutelage of William M. Chadduck, M.D. He joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas with special interests in pediatric neurosurgery and epilepsy surgery.

In 1992, he became the Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Arkansas Childrens Hospital and served there until 1989. Following a year in private practice in Little Rock, Arkansas, Dr. Boop joined Semmes-Murphey Clinic in Memphis, Tennessee, where he is an Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Tennessee Medical School. He serves as the head of the division of pediatric neurosurgery. He practices at the LeBonheur Childrens Hospital and St. Jude Childrens Cancer Center Research Hospital.

He is married to Lee Ann, and they have two children, Scott and Sarah Boop.