Divko Budak was born on 24 February 1897 in Karlobag. After completing primary school in his hometown, he attended high school in Sušak and the Commercial School in Ljubljana. The First World War, the influence of the October Revolution, and the revolutionary atmosphere immediately after the war led Divko to join the revolutionary workers' movement in 1919. He distinguished himself through political activity before the first parliamentary elections in 1920 for the Constituent Assembly. In 1921, he became a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
From 1927 to 1932, he lived in Perušić, where he opened a small shop called the "party store." During this time, he led illegal party activities in the town and influenced the creation and functioning of party organizations throughout Lika, especially in Gospić and the Croatian Littoral. After being compromised with the police, he moved to Zagreb, where he continued revolutionary work, particularly in the trade union movement, the Union of Private Employees, and the Union of Bank Clerks. In 1934, he was admitted as a member of the Local Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in Zagreb. The following year, he went underground. Due to the risk of arrest, in 1936, on the Party’s orders, he went abroad. He stayed in Prague and Paris, where he worked on organizing aid for the Spanish people's fight against fascism.
Immediately after returning to the country in 1939, Divko was arrested and released after three months of interrogation. Despite the danger of being arrested again, he continued to act for the Party in Zagreb. On 31 March 1941, together with a large group of communists and revolutionaries, he was arrested by Maček’s and Šubašić’s police and imprisoned in the Kerestinec camp. He was one of the organizers of the breakout from the camp, carried out on 13/14 July. The Ustaše soon captured him and executed him on 17 July 1941 in Kerestinec.
By decree of the President of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, on 24 July 1953, he was proclaimed a National Hero.
