Margalit was born in 1906 in Ostrołęka, in the Łomża Governorate of Congress Poland, then part of in the Russian Empire, and began acting in his home town at the age of 13. In 1922, he emigrating to Mandate Palestine within the framework of the Hechalutz movement. He worked initially as a construction worker in Tel Aviv and Rishon Lezion and as an agricultural worker in Hadera.