His father Damaschin was a Romanian Orthodox religion teacher, while his mother Sofia (née Drăgan) was the orphaned daughter of the village schoolteacher.

Following a stint in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, he entered the University of Cluj in the autumn of 1918.

After Northern Transylvania (including the city of Cluj) was transferred to Hungary in the wake of the Second Vienna Award of August 1940, Daicoviciu moved to the University of Sibiu, where he was dean of the philology department in 1940–41.

A 1978 public letter by anonymous Hungarian intellectuals claims that, in his political testament, Daicoviciu withdrew his theses, calling his theory (by the time adopted by the state in education) only hypothetical.

He died in 1973 in Cluj, and was buried in the city's Hajongard Cemetery.