Christos Tsaganeas was born in Braila, Romania on July 2, 1906. He came from a wealthy Greek and aristocratic family and from a young age he showed great love for the theater. His parents, however, had demanded that he finish some university school, and that's why when he graduated from the Greek high school in Romania, they sent him to Athens for academic studies. He initially enrolled in Medicine but soon dropped out and went to Law from which he never got a degree. The reason for this event was his acquaintance and love for the actress Nitsa Vitsori, seven years older than him, for whose sake he abandoned his studies and began to appear in the theater.

When Nitsa divorced her first husband, Giorgis Vitsoris, Tsaganeas not only married her but also enrolled in the Drama School of the National Theater to get a proper foundation and an acting degree.