Saâd Ben Cheffaj was born in 1939 in Tétouan, Morocco. He is among the first Moroccan artists to receive academic training in visual arts. He first studied in 1957 at the School of Fine Arts and Architecture of Seville and then took art history classes at the Ecole du Louvre in Paris. He returned to Spain in 1962 and received a teaching certification from the prestigious School Santa Isabel de Hungria. In 1965, Saâd Ben Cheffaj returned to Morocco to teach art history, drawing and painting at the School of Fine Arts and Architecture of Tétouan.