Abi Ofarim was born Avraham Reichstadt in Safed, Galilee, in what was then the British mandate of Palestine on October 5, 1937. Upon Israel's independence in 1948, he attended ballet school and made his stage debut in Haifa in 1952. By the age of 17, he was arranging his own choreography, and by 18 had his own dance studio. He was then recruited to serve in the Israeli army during the Suez crisis and the Sinai war.