Marie Karoline Rökk was born in 1913 in Cairo, Egypt, the daughter of Hungarian architect and contractor Eduard Rökk and his wife, Maria Karoline Charlotte (born Karoly) Rökk. She spent her childhood in Budapest, but in 1924 her family moved to Paris where her father had been contractually engaged. Here she learned to dance and starred with the Hoffmann Girls at the Moulin Rouge cabaret.[citation needed]