Jozef Tomko was born in Udavské, near Humenné, in Czechoslovakia (now part of the Republic of Slovakia). He studied at the Theological Faculty of Bratislava, and then traveled to Rome to study at the Pontifical Lateran Athenaeum and Pontifical Gregorian University, from where he obtained his doctorates in theology, canon law, and social sciences. Tomko was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Luigi Traglia on March 12, 1949.