Jean-Marc Lofficier was born in Toulon, France in 1954. The son of a serviceman, he moved several times during his formative years, spending "a goodly part of my childhood in Bordeaux, and my teenage years in Fontainebleau." A budding writer from an early age, Lofficier also "drew my own little comic strips when I was 13, 14, and began being published in French 'zines at 16." Recalling in 2005 that "writing wasn't deemed a respectable, economically sound way of making a living," he got an MBA and a Law degree, then went to work in international banking.