 Born to a Székely family in Farkaslaka in Udvarhely County (present-day Lupeni, Harghita County), he graduated in Law and Commerce at the Babeș-Bolyai University, Tamási emigrated to the United States in 1923, soon after Transylvania became part of Romania.He wrote his first Hungarian-language novels there, and these were soon published in Cluj, to widespread acclaim.He returned home in 1926 and lived in Transylvania until 1944.