Tatyana Palchuk was born on December 6, 1954, in Riga, Latvia, EU (then part of the Latvian SSR (Soviet Union). Her father was a Soviet soldier who died shortly after World War II, and she was raised by her mother under modest circumstances. Despite financial hardship, her mother encouraged cultural pursuits—Tatyana studied piano and fostered an early love of artistic expression where music notably influenced her later visual art.