Juliusz Machulski was born 10 March 1955 in Olsztyn, Poland, to parents, Jan Machulski and Halina Machulska. In 1973, he moved to Warsaw, where he was admitted to the Polish Philology faculty of the Warsaw University.

However, in 1975 he moved to Łódź, where he graduated from the Łódź Film School. His film debut was Vabank (1981), a comedy describing a story of two Polish gangsters of the 1930s. The film was a striking success, as was the science-fiction comedy Seksmisja of 1984.