Moty Heiblum was born and raised in Holon. His mother was the only Holocaust survivor in her immediate family, and most of his father's family perished in the Holocaust. From 1967 to 1971 Moty Heiblum served in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) in the IDF Communications Corps and was an instructor at the IDF Air Force Technical School. Heiblum graduated in electrical engineering from the Technion with a bachelor's degree in 1973 and from Carnegie-Mellon University with a master's degree in 1974. He received in 1978 his Ph.D. with thesis Characteristics of metal-oxide-metal devices supervised by John Roy Whinnery. After completing his Ph.D., Heiblum joined the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center.