Volpin was born into an intellectual family: his father, David Samuilovich, was a lawyer; his mother, Anna Borisovna (née Zhislin) was a schoolteacher [REF].
From 1921 to 1927 he was a student at Vkhutemas, where he wrote satirical poems and comic plays, including collaborations with Viktor Ardov, Ilya Ilf, Yevgeny Petrov, Valentin Kataev, Vladimir Mass, and Nikolai Erdman.