Sergey Zhvachkin was born on 20 January 1957 in the city of Molotov, Soviet Union, which is now known as Perm. He graduated from Tyumen State University of Engineering and Construction in 1979 and the Gorky Institute of Engineering and Construction in 1983. In the 1980s and 1990s he was a manager in various capacities at oil and gas companies in Tomsk Oblast. In 1991, he graduated from an economics institute in Kiel, Germany.
