[1] Frei was born in 1963 in Essen, West Germany,[2] his parents having settled there after leaving Silesia before it became part of Poland.

[3] In 1973 the family moved to the United Kingdom, where Frei's father became a London correspondent for radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.

[3] Frei was educated at Westminster School, then read history and Spanish at St Peter's College, University of Oxford, graduating in 1986.

In 1989, working as a stringer, he reported on the First Intifada in Jerusalem, then on the Persian Gulf War as London foreign affairs correspondent.

[6] From 1992 to 1996, he worked as a Southern Europe correspondent, based in Rome, and covered events in Bosnia, Kosovo, North Africa and various Mafia-related stories.