Dutourd was born in Paris. His mother died when he was seven years old. At the age of twenty, he was taken prisoner fifteen days after Germany's invasion of France in World War II. He escaped six weeks later and returned to Paris where he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne. He entered the Resistance and was again arrested in early 1944. He escaped and took part in the Liberation of Paris. He was a candidate for the Democratic Union of Labour (UDT) in the legislative elections of 1967.