I've heard such good things but do I need to play 1 and/or 2 first to appreciate this game? Thanks

I doubt it. The story in borderlands was never the focus.

The game does have multiple characters from the previous games in it, but nah, you should be fine.

I get the feeling that there's going to be a number of cameos throughout the episodes, but at least in the first episode it's nothing that should interfere with understanding or enjoying the story or characters. The only thing worth knowing is that Handsome Jack was the head of Hyperion and now he's dead.

Your experience will definitely be enhanced if you've played the previous games but it won't be ruined if you haven't.

Depends. Are you in it for a Borderlands experience or a TellTales experience?

You don't need to know the lore to enjoy this game, aside from references, you really aren't missing much. It's a fantastic lil game thus far and think everyone should give it a shot as long as they don't dislike the Teltale experience. It's funny and a lot of fun and is full on action after the first 15mins or so, and the action is handled incredibly well with very clear prompts.

there are a lot of character callbacks. You don't need to be super familiar with the "lore" cus who cares, the Borderlands devs certainly don't. The story stuff is just means to do crazy gun things and having nutty characters. All you need to know is vaulthunters are good guy rogues and everyone else is a crazy asshole.

Why not just get Borderlands 2 GOTY? It's a better game and way cheaper.

I'm in the same boat as you. I love TellTale games in general, but the Borderlands universe is pretty foreign to me lol

Having played the first two Borderlands games and not caring for the story in either, I can say that you'll be fine by playing Tales From The Borderlands. It's actually really good.