Tim Finn was born in Te Awamutu, New Zealand. He went to Sacred Heart College, Auckland, a Catholic boarding school. In 1971 he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Auckland. It is there that he met Mike Chunn, Robert Gillies, Philip Judd and Noel Crombie. Phil and Tim formed a band called Split Ends, which became Split Enz before they started to tour Australia.