From 1974 until 1977, Tsoi attended a secondary art school, where he was a member of the band Palata # 6 (, "Chamber # 6"). From 1977, he attended the Serov Art School, until he was expelled in 1979 for poor performance. Afterwards, he attended SGPTU-61, where he was studying to become a wood carver. In his youth, he was a fan of Mikhail Boyarsky and Vladimir Vysotsky, and later Bruce Lee, after whom he started modelling his image. He was fond of martial arts and often sparred "in Chinese" with bandmate Yuri Kasparyan.