He was born in Fredriksstad as a son of shipbroker Georg Apenes (1869–1902) and his wife Kitty, née Mørch (1872–1958). His brother Christian was a judge and politician.[1][2] Through him, Ola was an uncle of politician Georg Apenes.[3]
He finished his secondary education in 1916 and took an engineering education in the Swedish company ASEA as well as at ETH Zurich in 1923. In 1927 he travelled to the United States to work with railroad electrification, going on to Mexico in 1929 to work as a telephone engineer for Ericsson there. Once there, he became immensely interested in the ancient culture and archaeological artefacts to be found there. He took a university degree in Mesoamerican archaeology in 1933. Among others, he studied the field Chimalhuacán, and found it to have been a dwelling site in conjunction with the Lake Texcoco. He also studied cultural practices such as the Danza de los Voladores, and became known for photography and filming. He was published in several periodicals and in 1937 he was a co-founder of the Anthropological Society of Mexico (Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología).[4][5] He was also a newspaper correspondent.[6]