Born in the village of Zorokiv to a family of well-to-do peasants, in the Cherniakhiv region of what is now the Zhytomyr Oblast, his works first appeared in the local oblast newspaper "Radianska Volyn" when he was fourteen years old. Movchan moved to Zhytomyr to pursue secondary school but, due to his family's persecution as "kurkuls", left for Kharkiv, Ukraine's capital at the time where he began a new life. Escaping the ravages of the famine that engulfed most of rural Ukraine, Julian Movchan worked in a factory while editing its newspaper. At this time, he completed his education at an institute for journalism. However, disappointed with increasing censorship of the 1930s and unwilling for moral reasons to join the communist party, Movchan abandoned his career in journalism and entered medical school. When the Soviet Army occupied western Ukraine in 1939, he transferred his studies to Lviv. During the subsequent German occupation, he resumed his journalistic work, denouncing the Stalinist regime. During this time he also treated wounded soldiers of the UPA when they were smuggled into the city. When the Soviets returned, he fled westward and completed his medical studies in Munich. In 1949, he moved to America, eventually settling outside Cleveland, Ohio. He married, and had two children and four grandchildren.