Moguy was born Leonid Mohylevskyi (Леонід Могилевський) in Odesa, Russian Empire in 1899 in a Jewish family.

His work has influenced American director Quentin Tarantino, who discovered him while writing the script for Inglourious Basterds, and named a character after him in Django Unchained.

During World War I, he was a soldier of the 51st Lithuanian infantry regiment of the Imperial Russian Army in Simferopol.

After the war, he was a medical student and worked part-time at the film studio of Dmytro Kharytonov who came from Moscow to Odesa.

An active member of the society Friends of Soviet Cinema, Mohylevskyi edited 16 short films for them, such as Now!

[7] He was meant to follow Action in Arabia with Experiment Perilous with Paul Henreid at RKO but the film was not made.

[12] He went on to make 100 Little Mothers (1952), Children of Love (1953), The Width of the Pavement (1956), Give Me My Chance (1957) and Man Wants To Live (1961).