 Grände was born in Tvååker, Sweden and was the fifth out of seven children of vicar Gustaf Grände and Anna-Carin Crona.He became an aid worker (part of UBV) in Chile in 1971 and after the 1973 coup d'état he joined the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), an armed resistance movement that fought dictator Augusto Pinochet.There he was given the title "el Comandante Julio".