Yoda — one of the most powerful and greatest Jedi we’ve ever known. But what’s funny is that none of us really know his backstory. Even the man who created him, George Lucas himself, never fully revealed where Yoda came from or anything specific about his mysterious species.
But let’s set that mystery aside for now, because what’s even more interesting is this — how did Yoda himself become a Jedi?
So in this story, we’re going to look at everything we know — from both Star Wars Canon and Legends — to piece together how Yoda first became a Jedi.
What Canon Tells Us About Yoda’s Jedi Story
Let’s start with Yoda’s career in canon — because this one remains the most mysterious of all. As far as we know, Yoda was once like any other young Jedi, taken in by a master at an early age. But the identity of that master has never been clearly revealed anywhere in canon — except for a tiny reference in Star Wars: Master and Apprentice by Claudia Gray.
From the book:
“He, like Dooku and Yoda and Yoda’s old Master before him, had taken a younger Padawan.”
That single line is the first small clue we ever get about Yoda’s early Jedi life. Years later, around 2015, another canon story briefly mentioned his mysterious master again. In Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: So You Want to Be a Jedi? by Adam Gidwitz, Yoda tells Luke a story about his own teacher.
However, the story Yoda shares in that book doesn’t really give us solid details about his training or rise in the Jedi Order, it’s more of a parable. Something his master once told him, which Yoda now passes on to Luke. So even in canon, Yoda’s path to becoming a Jedi is still mostly left in the shadows.
In Legends, We Finally Learn How Yoda Became a Jedi
In the Star Wars Legends continuity, we actually get a much clearer idea of how Yoda became a Jedi — and what his life was like before that. What’s really interesting about this version is that it came from the original Expanded Universe, the one that was closely tied to George Lucas’s vision before Disney reset the timeline. So in a way, this might be the closest we ever get to Yoda’s “true” origin story.
And here’s how it all happened.
Before Yoda became the great Jedi Master we know today, he actually started out as something very different — basically jobless and trying to make a living as a merchant. If you missed it, this story came from Star Wars Galaxy Magazine issue #9 — one of the few times we ever got a look at Yoda’s early life in the galaxy.
The story begins with Yoda and his human friend traveling together into the Core Systems, looking for work. But their journey doesn’t go as planned. Their ship is struck by an asteroid, forcing them to crash-land on a fog-covered planet — Dagobah.
There, they meet a strange alien named N’Kata Del Gormo, who turns out to be a Jedi Master. After offering Yoda and his friend shelter, Del Gormo senses their connection to the Force and begins to teach them its ways.
In case you’re curious about this rare story, it was published in Star Wars Galaxy Magazine and can still be found online
Then later on, we have another source called Star Wars: The Legendary Yoda, which gives us even more specific details about his Jedi journey. In this book, the story lines up closely with what we read earlier — but adds a few key pieces that really flesh out Yoda’s early years. As The Legendary Yoda states:
“Yoda is nearly 900 years old, but very little is known about his early life. He is from a remote planet, but which one is a mystery. Amazingly, Yoda did not know that he had Force powers until he was an adult. His path toward the Jedi began when he left his home to find work.”
So once again, it’s the same theme — Yoda had no idea about his connection to the Force until much later in life, and his journey started out as something ordinary before destiny stepped in.
The book also reveals that by the age of 96, Yoda had already become a Jedi Master:
“As time passed, Yoda proved himself to be a skilled Jedi. When he had completed his Padawan training, he became a Jedi Knight, which meant he could go on important missions. By the age of 96 he had become a Jedi Master. Later, Yoda was elected to join the Jedi High Council.”
It’s crazy to think that even with nearly 900 years of life, Yoda’s path began so humbly — as someone who didn’t even know he had the Force until adulthood.
