Holoubek participated in the September Campaign and was a prisoner of war during the Nazi German Occupation of Poland.

His father was a Czech immigrant who settled in Poland after the First World War, and his mother was Polish.

Holoubek had his first role as an actor in 1947, thus beginning his lifelong career in theatre and film in Poland and abroad.

His political career began in 1976, when he was elected to the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish Parliament.

That same year, he took a position as a professor at the Academy of Theatre in Warsaw.