[1][2] She was born to Slovene parents in Budapest in 1947 where her father Rudolf Čačinovič was serving as a military attache.

[2] She subsequently studied at the University of Bonn from 1968 to 1970 where her father was serving as ambassador of Yugoslavia to West Germany.

She obtained a doctorate and became a professor at the Department of Philosophy of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb, being employed there since 1976.

Čačinovič was also active in left wing politics, running for parliament for the Social Democratic Action of Croatia.

[5] In 2017, Čačinovič has signed the Declaration on the Common Language of the Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins.