Meier was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, in 1905. He enrolled at the University of Zürich in 1924. In the winter semester of 1927, Meier traveled to Paris to study at the Medical Faculty of the University of Paris. Later, in
1928, he traveled to Vienna to study at the Steinhof (the Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Vienna), and to attend the lectures of Julius Wagner-Jauregg.
A colleague at Steinhof invited him to attend a series of Wednesday seminars delivered by Sigmund Freud. In 1931, he began his study of psychiatry under Hans-Wolfgang Maier at Burghölzli.