For some reason, whenever I try incorporating the while loop into my tkinter program, the window I created freezes and says "not responding". Is this because while is not compatible with tkinter? If so, please let me know a way around this.
"not compatible" is not the right word. Tkinter programs can certainly use while loops. In fact, mainloop itself is a while loop. 
The issue isn't compatibility, it's just that tkinter is single-threaded and can do only one thing at a time. If python is running your loop, it can't also be updating the screen and processing events at the same time unless you explicitly make that happen.

If so, please let me know a way around this.

That part of the question is too broad for stackoverflow. There are many ways around it, but it depends on what you're actually trying to do in that while loop. For example, you could run the loop in another thread. You could run it in a separate process. you could break it down to smaller chunks that run inbetween the moments when tkinter needs to update the screen, or you could explicitly ask tkinter to update the screen in the middle of the loop.
Is the while loop not compatible with tkinter?