Manu Tupou was born on Lomaloma, Lau, Fijji Islands on January 5 1935. After completing his studies at the University of Hawaii on U.S. government scholarship, He began studying at the University of London on a BBC scholarship. On a summer vacation Tupou was body surfing near the Ilikai Hotel when his girlfriend told him that he fit the description for a casting ad in the local newspaper. His girlfriend told him that they were looking for someone like him.

In fact, they were actually looking for Tupou. When he arrived, casting director Marion Dougherty pulled out a picture she had acquired from the Fiji Visitor Bureau. On a lark, he had posed with Dinah Shore's stand-in, who was in Fiji working on a network Christmas special. The picture became a poster which adorned the wall of the Fiji airport. Dougherty saw this picture on the way out of Fiji, looking for the man to fill this role. When Dougherty and director George Roy Hill saw it, they knew they had found their man. When the they asked the Fiji Visitor's Bureau, where can we find this young man, they were told that he was a young man of great importance (as he was part of the royal of family of Tonga and quite noteworthy of a person on the island). The Bureau told them that he was in Hawaii on vacation for school. Dougherty and Hill went off to Hawaii to find this young man. So by the time he arrived at the address in the ad they were expecting him. He auditioned and they both felt they had found their Prince. But Tupou declined as he was starting school in a couple of days.

He went back to London. After a couple of weeks he got a call from an authoritative voice. "Be ready at 9:00 a.m." The producers of the film persisted. A limousine was waiting for him. The driver paid his rent and took him to the BBC. It was here that the chairman of the BBC told Tupou he would keep his scholarship open for two years. He then was fitted for a suit, given a fistful of cash and sent to the airport where he flew to Hollywood to go to Samuel Goldwyn Studios. He arrived on the set of Hawaii, where he got his start in movies. This begin his career. While staying with Dougherty in New York He was introduced to Lee Strasber.

In New York he studied at Carnegie Hall at the Actors Studio with the like of Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro and Shelly Winters. It was here began to develop himself as an artist. He began working on movies and television shows and even Broadway. It was here in New York that he studied with the greats of the time, later to develop his own technique. This technique was developed from what he learned and the mistakes he felt he made from using sense memory, which he felt damaged his sanity due to the use of past moments of pain and unconsciousness.