It is likely to not yield anything worth the effort/costs/risk, and could potentially die yes. The plant will become root bound at some point, begin to exhibit deficiencies, hindered growth and since it wont be getting any better (as it could if a transplant were performed) it'll just get worse.
If you were to have to grow in such a small container you'd need to bloom early. It is possible to force bloom from seed, and some people do\have done this or flower from a week or two old.
Another alternative you can look into that I would recommend is mainlining or LST. Essentially tying the nodes down from a young age and as they grow. You could also do a screen of green technique, but mainlining might be easier for you and wouldn't require any screen\trellis materials, just twine or rope and/or weights (e.g. fishing weights). It works well with topping. Search for images and you'll quickly get an idea what it is about, plenty of other info about these techniques around here.
You didn't mention how many plants you had exactly, but you'd probably be better off with fewer plants in larger containers, using one of the aforementioned techniques to keep the vertical height in check. Tying the plants down or doing a Scrog will allow you to take advantage of the 2D horizontal space, keep an even canopy that will still fill out.
