During the Hungarian uprising in 1956, when he was age nine, the family escaped over the border to Austria and migrated to Canada and settled in Montreal, Quebec.

[2] Schwarcz attended Logan school on Darlington and went on to study chemistry at McGill University in Montreal where he received a BSc (1969)[3] and PhD (1973).

[1] Schwarcz became interested in magic and chemistry at the age of nine, when he saw a magician perform a rope trick at a school friend's birthday party.

[1][5] In 1999 Schwarcz became the founding director of the McGill University Office for Science and Society (OSS) with Ariel Fenster and David N.

[5] The OSS "...is a unique venture dedicated to the promotion of critical thinking and the presentation of scientific information to the public, educators and students in an accurate and responsible fashion."

[7] Schwarcz began his media career in 1980 after meeting Montreal Gazette reporter Ted Blackman at the Man and His World exhibition when he was demonstrating how to make polyurethane from two liquids.

He is one of the spokespersons for ScienceUpFirst, a science communication initiative aiming at reducing the impact of COVID misinformation online.