Warlimpirrnga was born in the late 1950s. He was born near Lake Mackay, east of where Kiwirrkurra is today. He and his family lived a traditional nomadic way of life on the western side of Lake Mackay. They had never come into contact with European society. Warlimpirrnga's father died when he was a young boy. His mother remarried shortly after. Warlimpirrnga himself married his cousin, Yalti, sometime around 1980. He was a hunter, the family's main provider of food. He hunted with spears, mirru (spear-throwers) and boomerangs.