Znalic was born in Hurbanova, Oceana to Hanna (nee Isner) and Joshua Znalic. His mother stayed at home and worked on and off as a newspaper editor. His father was a worker in the mines and was once deputy of the Miners Union of Lovia. Znalic was inspired to get a degree in philosophy by reading his father's philosophy books in his teen years. He was first inspired by Bertrand Russell's Problems of Philosophy and later read other logical positivist philosophers before moving onto the works of Karl Marx.