Chico Pelúcio was born in Cruzilha in 1959 and raised in nearby Baependi, where he spent his formative years shuffling among his father’s and his grandfather’s farms, the Bar Fecha Nunca (Bar Never Closes), and the soccer field of Botafogo F. C. Chico came to Belo Horizonte in 1975 to study Management at college. He and Eduardo Moreira appeared together in "Murro em ponta de faca," under the direction of João Machado, a college production sponsored by the Communication School in PUC. In 1981, Chico Pelúcio planned and organized with the help of some friends the Festival Cante-Conte in Baependi. The same year he started his Economy Major at UFMG. At the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (FAFICH), Chico Pelúcio worked as an actor, sharing the stage again with Eduardo Moreira and Edwaldo Zampier in "A escola acabou," with a students’ company called Teatro de Resistência. In 1983, he took a degree in Management instead of the economy major, and went to London, where he studied clown techniques. Together with his English friend Rick Vick, Chico Pelúcio prepared a street sketch to perform in the streets of France, Belgium, and England. In 1984, Chico Pelúcio returned to Baependi, where he founded a short-lived theater company named Cataguá de Teatro. Chico remained in his hometown for only six months before returning to Belo Horizonte to work with Xuxo Lara in their joint project, Lápis de Cena. That was when Chico Pelúcio was called for an emergency replacement in the cast of Grupo Galpão’s "E a Noiva não quer casar" and joined the group never to leave again.