Armando Bukele Kattán was born in San Salvador, on December 16, 1944, the son of Humberto Bukele Salman and Victoria Kattán de Bukele. His parents were Palestinian Christians from Bethlehem in Ottoman Palestine and had emigrated to El Salvador at the beginning of the 20th century as part of an emigration wave. He completed his high school studies at the Liceo Salvadoreño.