Bandić was born to father Jozo Antun Bandić and mother Blagica Tomić in the small hamlet of Bandića Brig, a part of Cerov Dolac in the municipality of Grude, Bosnia and Herzegovina (then PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia). He was the middle child in the family, with an older brother Drago and younger sister Tonka. His family's main source of income was a tobacco plantation. As a child, Bandić was an altar boy in the local church. He attended Antun Branko Šimić High School in Grude and he was excellent student. In 1974, he moved to Zagreb to study at the Department of Political Science at the University of Zagreb. To pay off his student loans he unloaded sugar and coal.