Sadoway was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He did both his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Toronto, receiving his PhD in 1977. There he focused his studies on chemical metallurgy. He also served on the National Executive of the Ukrainian Canadian Students' Union (SUSK) from 1972 to 1974. In 1977, he received a NATO postdoctoral fellowship from the National Research Council of Canada and came to MIT to conduct his postdoctoral research under Julian Szekely. Sadoway joined the MIT faculty in 1978. On 19 June 2013, Sadoway was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Engineering by the University of Toronto in recognition of his contributions to sustainable energy and sustainable metal production as well as to higher education both in curriculum and in teaching style. In 2014, Sadoway received an honorary doctorate from NTNU, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.