Vytautas Valavičius was born in Veliakiemiai village, Šeduva rural district, Panevėžys county. He went to a primary school in Pakalniškiai and then to a gymnasium in Šeduva. Having finished it 1946, in the same year he became a student at the Philology Department of the Faculty of History and Philology of Vilnius University. He was not destined to graduate from the university as in March 1949 he was deported to Irkutsk region with thousands of other residents of Lithuania. While in exile, he studied at Tulun Teacher Training Institute. He returned to Lithuania in 1957.