Olah was born in Budapest, Hungary, on May 22, 1927, to Magda (Krasznai) and Gyula Oláh, a Lawyer. After the high school of Budapesti Piarista Gimnazium (Scolopi fathers), he studied under organic Chemist Géza Zemplén at the Technical University of Budapest, now the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, where he earned M.S. and Ph.D degrees in Chemical Engineering. From 1949 through 1954, he taught at the school as a professor of organic chemistry. In the subsequent two years, from 1954–1956, he worked at the Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, where he was Associate Scientific Director and Head of the Department of Organic Chemistry.