Ghebreyesus was born on March 21, 1962, in Asmara, Eritrea. While still in his teens he joined the struggle for Eritrean independence. However in 1978, at the urging of his family, he agreed to stop fighting and leave the country. For the next three years he moved among various Eritrean communities in Sudan, Italy, and Germany and then, in 1981, came to New York City where one of his sisters lived. He enrolled in Southern Connecticut State University and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2000. He also studied at the Art Students League in New York and attended Robert Blackburn's printmaking workshop. He won admittance to the Yale School of Art in 2000 and received a Master of Fine Arts degree two years later. On graduating he received the Carol Schlosberg Prize for Excellence in Painting.