 After graduating from St. Albertus high school in Malang (Dempo), he attended the "Lembaga Pendidikan Kesenian Jakarta", now known as "Institut Kesenian Jakarta" but did not complete his studies.From 1975 to 1979, Eka Budianta studied Japanese literature at the Department of East Asian Studies Literature then changed to the Department of History, Faculty of Letters, University of Indonesia.He then studied journalism at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College in the United States from 1980–81.