Boyadzhiev was born in Sofia under the name Imre as the illegitimate son of car racer and bohemian Dimitar Sokolov and 17-year-old Hungarian emigrant mother Piri,[1] a milliner.
[2] However, his mothers' parents did not approve the two's relationship and he was adopted by the Novi Pazar merchant Kiril Boyadzhiev, whom he considers his real father, when he was six months old; the document was issued in Skopje.
[2] Boyadzhiev spent his childhood in Novi Pazar and then enrolled in the Saint Augustine French college in Plovdiv.
In France he was a waiter in a bistro; it was at this time that he met filmmaker René Clair and went on to work as his assistant for three years.
[2] Boyadzhiev also worked in New York City in the United States as well as Canada (as a CBS correspondent)[3] and Hollywood and took his doctor's degree in cinema and television studies from the University of Cambridge.