Lypynsky was born in Zaturtsi (now in Volyn Oblast) into a family of Polish noble origins.

After completing secondary school in Kyiv, he studied philosophy, agronomy and history at Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

A conservative monarchist, Lypynsky was critical of the populism and socialism of the leadership of the Central Council and Directorate of Ukraine, which emphasised the workers and intelligentsia as a source of support.

Instead, Lypynsky proposed that the focus of the struggle of independence should be built around the peasantry, the bourgeois, and the elite.

A Ukrainian monarch, such as a Hetman, was seen by Lypynsky as essential in cementing the loyalties of the members of various social classes and ethnicities.