Andreas Wack was born in Frankfurt, studied biology in Konstanz and got his first degree based upon a thesis on the clonal composition of T cell populations in the elderly. He performed his PhD work at the Medical Research Council National Institute for Medical Research (now part of the Francis Crick Institute) under the supervision of Dimitris Kioussis on thymocyte lineage decisions and went on to do a postdoc and work as a staff scientist in the research institute of Novartis Vaccines, formely Chiron, in Siena, Italy.

The focus of his work there was the modulation of T and NK cell function by the hepatitis C virus, human dendritic cell subsets and their crosstalk, the mechanism of action of mucosal and parenteral vaccine adjuvants, and next generation influenza vaccines.