Anvar Mammadkhanli was born on 28 February 1913 in the city of Goychay. After finishing primary school there, he studied at the N. Narimanov Industrial Technical School in Baku (1926–1931). He then worked as a technician at a mechanical plant, at the energy and electrification department, and as a technician-electrician at the research institute under the Azerbaijan Oil Institute in Baku (1931–1934). At the same time he studied by correspondence for two years at the Azerbaijan Oil Institute. He worked as an editor and translator in the artistic department of Azerneshr (1934–1936), as an auditor at the Higher Institute of Cinematography in Moscow (1936–1938), as head of the screenplay department at the "Azerbaijanfilm" film studio (1941–1942), and, during the Second World War, as special correspondent for the Azerbaijani editorial office of the "Red Army" front newspaper on the south-western front. He was then sent together with the editorial office to Stalingrad. In late 1942 he was, together with a group of Azerbaijani writers, on the North Caucasus front with the 416th division. He worked as an editor at the Azerbaijan Radio Broadcasting Committee in Baku (1943–1944). He was sent again to the Transcaucasian front, and from there on military service to Iran. He worked as special correspondent for the army newspaper "On the Road of the Homeland," published in Tabriz (1944–1946). After being discharged from the army, he became editor-in-chief of the screenplay editorial board of the "Azerbaijanfilm" film studio.
