At twenty one, Dunikowski moved back to Kraków to study sculpture at the School of Fine Arts under Konstanty Laszczka, admirer of Auguste Rodin, and under Alfred Daun.

While working at the academy, he educated many Polish sculptors including: Jerzy Bandura, Zygmunt Gawlik, Józef Gosławski, Maria Jarema, Ludwik Konarzewski (junior), Jacek Puget and Henryk Wiciński,[2] and Polish-American woodcarver Adam Dabrowski.

Being already of an advanced age, in 1942 Dunikowski fell sick and readily was selected to be killed, until his name was crossed out by a fellow Pole [citation needed] of the list of prisoners doomed to be gassed.

Narrowly escaping death, he once again nearly met his fate when in September 1943 he was accused of belonging to a resistance movement within the camp, and was therefore sentenced to be shot [citation needed].

Dunikowski had still not fully recovered by 27 January 1945, when the Soviet Red Army liberated Auschwitz, but by 1946 he has returned to his position at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków.

By the time he had returned to his normal life and recovered from his illness, Dunikowski was already seventy years old, and had started to create larger art to coincide with many of his Auschwitz-themed drawings and sculptures.

Considered to be the best 20th century Polish sculptor, Dunikowski is buried in the Alley of the Meritorious in Powązki Military Cemetery, Warsaw; his tomb sculpture was created by a former pupil, Barbara Zbrożyna.