Faust grew up in Heidenau, near Dresden, and in 1964 graduated from the High School at the Children's and Youth Sports School in Dresden.
In 1967 he was permitted to resume studying at the Johannes R. Becher Literature Institute at the University of Leipzig, but was expelled in 1968 on grounds of "subversive incitement" after writing a poem that mentioned the popular uprising of 17 June 1953.