Vượng was born on 5 August 1968 in Hanoi; his paternal family has origins in Haiphong in northern Vietnam. His father served in the Vietnamese Army's air defence division, and his mother had a tea shop, which left the family with a very meager income. He grew up in Hanoi and graduated from Kim Lien High School in 1985. In 1987, he entered Hanoi University of Mining and Geology and was sent to Russia to study in the Moscow Geological Prospecting Institute, for which he was able to obtain a scholarship thanks to his profound mathematical aptitude. He graduated from this university in 1992. After graduating, he married Phạm Thu Hương, whom he had known since high school, and moved to Kharkiv, Ukraine.
