Wyking Jones is 13 years old. He’s walking to the gym at Rogers Park in Inglewood (Los Angeles County), eager to play basketball, when two known gang leaders summon him.

The men routinely robbed Jones in his youth — they took candy from him when he was in first grade — so he instinctively checks his pockets and wonders how much money he’s about to lose. But this time, finally, they promise to stop harassing him. They hear he’s a good player and want to give him a chance.

Wyking Jones is 25. He’s playing professionally in Lebanon and loving it. Then he’s at the movie theater one night, and a teammate calls to tell him Israel is about to start bombing power plants, bridges and freeways in Beirut.

“I went back to my apartment, and I’m standing on the balcony looking out and seeing bombs being dropped,” Jones said. “You could feel the earth move when the bombs hit the ground.”

Now Wyking Jones is 44, early in his first season as Cal’s head coach. And, given his eventful path to this point, he’s really not intimidated by the monumental challenge he inherited.

Jones’ hiring in March generated understandable skepticism. Cal promoted him after Cuonzo Martin bolted for Missouri, and it was natural to wonder if athletic director Mike Williams — facing lingering budget problems — took the cheap option.

No question, Cal saved money by tapping a mostly unknown, unheralded assistant with zero head-coaching experience. Maybe Jones will be a resounding hit, or maybe he will quickly fizzle. Either way, he brings plenty of fascinating life experience to his new position of prominence.

Jones’ journey has included several uncommon twists, from avoiding those gangs to occasional acting gigs to also playing basketball in Japan, Italy, South Korea and France. All of that shaped the man now in charge of Cal’s program.

His story traces to a memorable era in Inglewood. Magic Johnson and the Showtime Lakers reached their peak in the 1980s, playing home games at the Fabulous Forum, about a mile from where Jones lived.

He described Inglewood as “drug-infested and gang-infested” in those days, but also possessing a vibrant hoops culture. Not only were the Lakers winning titles and dazzling NBA fans, but one of their stars was local: guard Byron Scott, from Morningside High School.

Jones spent many summer days playing ball from sunrise to sunset. Some of his friends got swept up in the drugs and gangs, but basketball was Jones’ world. The surrounding environment added a necessary rough edge.

“Inglewood taught me street smarts, it taught me how to handle myself, it taught me toughness,” Jones said. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything, growing up there.”

He was a good student at St. Bernard High in nearby Playa del Rey, and he became interested in Cal upon learning two earlier St. Bernard players, Chris Washington and Leonard Taylor, went there. Then-Cal head coach Lou Campanelli recruited Jones, until he received a commitment from a Sacramento-area prospect named Monty Buckley.

Jones ended up at nearby Loyola Marymount, where he arrived as an unimposing, 6-foot-7, 190-pound forward. He spent hours in the weight room, added 35 pounds of muscle and blossomed into a rugged and productive player, averaging 19.7 points as a junior and 13.1 as a senior.

Along the way, Jones dropped hints of his coaching future.

“He wasn’t one of those vocal leaders who had something to say all the time, but when he said something, you listened,” recalled former LMU head coach John Olive, a onetime NBA player who now coaches at Torrey Pines High in San Diego.

“You knew Wyking was speaking to make us better. He had great people skills. He was just a well-thought-out kid, very balanced as a young man.”

Jones also was a movie buff. He took film classes in college, which only heightened his interest. One agent who pursued him as a basketball client had connections with an acting agency, and he helped Jones get some auditions.

Before long, he landed roles in numerous television commercials, including one McDonald’s spot in which he vigorously swatted a young kid’s shot on a playground court. Jones also had a childhood friend, Rick Famuyiwa, who became a director, and that helped him get small roles in the “The Wood,” “Brown Sugar” and “Dope.”

Just a guess here, but not many Division I head coaches probably have a Screen Actors Guild card.

This movie fixation even prompted Jones to write a couple of screenplays (which he wasn’t able to sell), though basketball remained his priority. And he squeezed as many adventures as he could out of his hoops career, bouncing around the globe.

Among his most memorable off-the-court moments was trying to buy groceries in France. He didn’t understand the labels at first, but eventually he figured out a way to navigate the language barrier so he knew what he was eating.

“It matures you to another level,” Jones said of his time overseas. “After all the places I’ve lived, I can communicate with anybody — because I’ve been in places like Japan and South Korea, where it’s hard to find someone who speaks English.

“You have to be crafty and make it work somehow, someway. Those were great experiences.”

His reflections ultimately come back to Lebanon, where he played in 1998-99. Jones savored the experience for most of those nine months, living outside Beirut in the town of Zouk Mikael. He relished the hoops-crazed fans, including one older woman who spotted him on the street and invited him to dinner with her family.

He ended up as one of 12 people at the dining-room table, talking basketball and hanging out.

“Lebanon was an unbelievable place,” Jones said. “Everyone spoke English, so there was no language barrier. They loved basketball. We would have 40 to 50 people at practice every day, just watching, and the games were always standing room only.

“And the people were so warm and inviting. Everywhere else I had been, I counted the days until I could go home. That wasn’t true in Lebanon, because I was so comfortable there.”

Then, suddenly, he wasn’t comfortable at all. Jones’ team trailed two games-to-none in the best-of-five championship series when Israel started raining those bombs. He didn’t sleep one minute that night.

Jones and his two American teammates went to the team owner the next morning, and told him they wanted to go home. He understood. They departed a day later.

Jones stands on the sideline during Cal games, hands on hips and a stoic expression on his face. He cuts an imposing figure, with thick shoulders and a glistening, bald head.

His most recent coaching stop was at Louisville under Rick Pitino — after earlier stints at Pepperdine and New Mexico — and these Bears began the season pressing full-court and playing Pitino’s fast-paced, signature style. That’s the open question on Jones, how he will handle the X’s-and-O’s strategy required of a head coach. (Cal has slowed the tempo in recent games, given turnover issues.)

He clearly has a connection with his players. Jones recruited Cal forward Marcus Lee in high school, when Jones was at Louisville and Lee was at Deer Valley-Antioch. Lee ultimately chose Kentucky, but he remembered his rapport with Jones upon deciding to transfer.

“The first time I talked to him, he talked to me like he’s known me his whole life,” Lee said. “You talk to a lot of coaches, so they start getting blurred together. But you never forget talking to Wyking. He’s sincere, he wants you to get better and he cares for you — and you feel that when he talks to you.

“So when I decided to switch schools, it was an easy decision. I trust him on everything.”

Cal is trusting Jones to restore stability to its program. Not only did Martin leave for Missouri, but Ivan Rabb and Jabari Bird departed for the NBA and Charlie Moore transferred to Kansas. There’s not much left.

Jones still savors his first head-coaching job, in the city where his wife, Estrella, was born and raised (her grandparents, mom and two sisters graduated from Cal). Even if six of his team’s 12 scholarship players are freshmen. Even if the Bears have started 4-6, including embarrassing losses to UC Riverside, Chaminade and Central Arkansas. (They did bounce back to collect a surprising road victory Saturday over San Diego State).

Outsiders expect little of Cal, for good reason. Jones expects progress.

“I have a young team,” he said. “If I can get these guys to be hopefully a lot better at the end of the season than they are now, then we’ll be all right.

“It’s not one season and out. It’s a journey.”

Ron Kroichick is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rkroichick@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ronkroichick

Wyking Jones bio

Age: 44

Hometown:

Inglewood (Los Angeles County)

College:

Loyola Marymount, 1991-95

Pro career:

Played in Italy, France, Japan, Lebanon, South Korea

Previous coaching experience:

Louisville, New Mexico, Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount