Born in Liège, de Bry trained as a goldsmith and probably served his apprenticeship with his father, who was a guild member and magistrate. He had moved to Strasbourg by 1560, where he married and became a member of the guild. An autobiographical note in one of his works suggests that he was forced to leave Liège after Robert de Berghes became prince-bishop in 1557, possibly because of his evangelical sympathies: however, he was not in the guild records when he left Liège and may just have wanted to establish a new business. The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 had established Strasbourg as a Lutheran city, but attitudes towards Calvinists remained unfriendly.