Dragoycheva was born on in the town of Byala Slatina in Vratsa Province, northwestern Bulgaria. In 1919, she joined the Communist Party. She graduated from the high pedagogical school in Sofia and became a teacher. She took part in the communist September Uprising of 1923 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison and was deprived of her teaching rights. She was amnestied in 1924 and quickly became a member of the regional directorates of her party's armed wing in Rousse, Varna and Plovdiv. In the wake of the St Nedelya Church assault in 1925, Dragoycheva was again imprisoned and sentenced to death; the execution was postponed due to her pregnancy and her capital punishment was replaced with a life sentence in 1926. In 1932, she was again amnestied; her son, surgeon Chavdar Dragoychev, was born in prison.