Jorge Durán y Coral was born in Panabá, Yucatán, Mexico, on 23 April 1909. Born to indigenous ancestry, he was fluent in both Spanish and Mayan. His parents were Modesto Durán Chan and Carlota Coral Celis. He never knew his father (who died in 1910) and his mother died when he was six, leaving him orphaned. He moved to live in San Felipe with the woman known as “Doña Nica” and was later cared for by his uncles.

At the age of 12, he started going to school, simultaneously working as a cowboy on a ranch until the age of 17. Later he worked as a sailor.

At the age of 24, he married Maria Candida Marrufo Perera, with whom he had three children (Reynaldo, Jorge, and Augustina). His first wife died when he was 36 years old. Later, he remarried with Benita Dzul, with whom he had six children (Lázaro, Modesto, Ofelia, Miguel, Luis and Pedro).

Two of his older brothers, Feliciano (1899–1997), and Cecilio (1903–2001) lived to the ages 98 and 97 respectively. He also claimed that his grandmother became a centenarian. He was known as “Don Chep”, a nickname which he earned in 1914 when a barber accidentally cut his ear. Upon learning of this event, his friends began calling him “chep” or “chepe”, derived from a Mayan word in reference to his bad haircut.

Duran Coral died in San Felipe, Yucatán, Mexico, on 21 July 2021 at the age of 112 years, 89 days. At the time of his death, all but one of his children were still living. His first two children, Reynaldo and Agustina, were alive at the ages of 88 and 86.