Sergeyev was born in the village of Glebovo, Kursk Governorate, Russian Empire near the city of Fatezh to a family of a peasants. His father Andrey Arefyevich Sergeyev was a contractor to a construction porter, who in 1888 moved the family to Yekaterinoslav.
In 1901 Fyodor Sergeyev finished studies at the Yekaterinoslav realschule. He went on to attend the Imperial Moscow Technical College