Tadeusz Chciuk was born on 17 October 1916 to the Polish Catholic family of Michal Chciuk and his wife, Maria; the fourth of their five children in the city of Drohobycz in the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the reborn Poland Chciuk became active in the Polish Scouting Association from 1927 on, and was a Scoutmaster from 1936. After graduating from Jagiello High School, he went on to obtain his master's degree in Law at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lwow in 1939. He also got an intermediate degree in Music at the Szymanowski Conservatory in Lwow.