Paul Chomnycky was born in Vancouver, Canada, the son of a Ukrainian-immigrant father and Canadian-born mother (both of whom died in 1996),^[1] and graduated from the University of British Columbia with a bachelor's degree in Commerce in 1980. After working as an accountant for two years, he entered the novitate of the Order of St. Basil the Great, working in the Basilian monastery in New York.

On 1 October 1988, he was ordained as a priest of the Order of St. Basil the Great. Then, he continued with further studies in Philosophy at the University of St. Anselm and the Gregorian University in Rome, receiving a Bachelor's in Sacred Theology in 1990.

Upon his return to Canada, he served briefly as an assistant pastor at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Mundare, Alberta and St. Basil's, Edmonton. Eventually he would return to both parishes as their pastor in 1997 and 2000 and also served as the pastor of St. Mary's Church in Vancouver from 1994 to 1997. During his tenure as pastor at St. Basil's in Edmonton and St. Paul's in Mundare, he was also the superior of the local Basilian monastery.

Bishop Chomnycky also served as the Director of the Basilian Fathers museum in Mundare, a member of the Provincial Council of the Basilian Fathers of Canada, and a member of the college of consultors of the Edmonton Eparchy. He was appointed Exarch for Ukrainian Catholics in Great Britain on April 5, 2002 and consecrated bishop on June 11, 2002 by Cardinal Lubomyr Husar.

• Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Stamford Official Site
• The Catholic Church in England and Wales news release on the appointment of Paul Chomnycky as Apostolic Exarch for Ukrainians in Great Britain