Mohamed Mohamed Atalla was born in Port Said, Kingdom of Egypt. He studied at Cairo University in Egypt, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree. He later moved to the United States to study mechanical engineering at Purdue University. There, he received his master's degree (MSc) in 1947 and his doctorate (PhD) in 1949, both in mechanical engineering. His MSc thesis was titled "High Speed Flow in Square Diffusers" and his PhD thesis was titled "High Speed Compressible Flow in Square Diffusers".