No it's not strictly needed, though I haven't seen a course that teaches ML starting from the application and working backwards to the fundamentals. In teaching that's sometimes called "top down" as opposed to starting from fundamentals.

If you're taking courses, you may need to pick up a bit of math along the way. If you're self-taught, you might try starting with tutorials of ML libraries like scikit-learn and keeping a journal of any terms you need to look up later.