He was the son of parish priest David Christopher Frich and Emilie Christine Richter.

He then left family life, divorced, and married actress and boheme Ida Ajagela Basilier-Magelssen in 1907.

Both Frich and his new wife were part of a colorful group of people at the Grand Café in Kristiania.

He later spent twenty years travelling around the world, to exotic places like Spitsbergen and South America.

[2] Frich made his literary debut in 1911 with the adventurous novel De knyttede næver, the first in a series of books about the hero, Jonas Fjeld.