Kowalski was born on 14 April 1910, in the village of Rogówek, then part of Congress Poland within the Russian Empire, where he lived until the end of the 1930s.

In 1952, due to the broadening of the boundaries of the military training ground, he had to move out of his newly built house and live in Lower Silesia, in the village of Krzydlina Wielka, where he ran a small farm and worked as a railroad lineman.

[2] When he competed at the Polish Veterans Championships on 28 June 2015 in Toruń, Poland, he became the world's oldest athlete.

Hidekichi Miyazaki, a Japanese M100 sprinter, turned 105 on 22 September 2015 and two days later joined Kowalski as the second competitor in the division,[4] although Kowalski was 77 days older when he competed.

He became the oldest living man in Poland after the death of 108 year old Józef Żurek on 20 March 2018.