Naurdiev was born in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia[1] and his family left the war-torn city and moved to Austria in 2004 when he was nine years old for a safe and better life. He started training in wrestling and transitioned to MMA when he was a teenager. At the beginning of his MMA professional career, Naurdiev did not have any trainers or sparring partners but would accept every fight offered to him for experience.