Born in Esch-sur-Alzette in 1940, Paul Helminger moved with his family to Belair, a quarter in western Luxembourg City, when he was one year old. After he attained his baccalaureate in the Athénée de Luxembourg in 1959, Helminger went on to study law at the Sorbonne in Paris until 1963. At the same time, he also studied at the Institut d'Études Politiques and attained a degree in international relations in 1963. In 1964, he finished his doctorate in jurisprudence, before moving to the United States to finish his studies in political science at Stanford University.