He was born in Bucharest,[1] the son of general (later Marshal of the Court) Mihail Priboianu and his wife Lucreția, née Baranga, and a cousin of Armand Călinescu.
[1] Between 1929 and 1930, during the government of Iuliu Maniu, he served as Prefect of Argeș County; in 1930–1931, and again in 1932–1933, he represented the same area in the Assembly of Deputies.
In 1940, from July 4 to September 4, he served as Minister of Army Procurement in the government of Ion Gigurtu.
[3] Arrested by the communist regime in May 1950, he was sent to Sighet Prison,[4] where he shared a cell for several months with Ion Nistor, Gheorghe Cipăianu, Dumitru Caracostea, general Ioan Mihail Racoviță, Radu Portocală [ro], Sebastian Bornemisa [ro], Dimitrie Burileanu [ro], general Ioan Popovici, Gheorghe Tașcă, and Ion Pelivan.
[5] After being released from Sighet Prison in July 1955,[6] Priboianu was taken to the Malmaison barracks for questioning before being obliged to live on the Bărăgan Plain.