He attended St Mary's Roman Catholic School in Failsworth and studied design at the Manchester School of Art. While working as a textile designer and printmaker, he became involved in amateur dramatics at the Little Theatre, in Bolton, which had been set up by John Wardle, father of the drama critic Irving Wardle, whose wife, Norma, became a mentor to Tierney. As a result, he began a scholarship with the Rose Bruford Training College of Speech and Drama, in Sidcup, Kent, in 1958 and landed his first acting job in 1962.