He was born in the village of Igołomia as the son of Leon Tochowicz, a merchant, and Dorota née Nawrocka. In 1918 he volunteered for the Polish Army to take part in the war against the Bolsheviks. In 1920 he started studies in medicine at the Jagiellonian University. He obtained Ph.D. in medical sciences in 1926, after which he started working at the University as an assistant at the First Department of Internal Medicine. He received the habilitation in internal medicine on July 12, 1938.