Born in Semipalatinsk (now Semey in Kazakhstan) on the 17th of September 1889. In his youth he was connected with the Socialist movement in Russia and Galicia. He was active on the Progressive-Independent Youth Association, the Polish Socialist Party – Revolutionary Faction, or the Union of Active Struggle (ZWC). After the outbreak of the First World War, he took part in the founding of the Polish Military Organization (POW). He was also the delegate on behalf of the Polish Socialist Party concerning the formation of Józef Haller’s Army. He belonged to the Press Department of the PPS, and served as Deputy Minister of Propaganda in Ignacy Daszyński’s Provisional People's Government of the Republic of Poland. He was one of the authors of that government’s manifesto, and also edited “Robotnik”, where he dealt with nationality issues. From 1921 he was the editor-in-chief of “Trybuna PPS”. In 1921-1924, he was a member of the Supreme Council of the PPS and the secretary of that party’s Central Executive Committee. From 1925 he headed the Institute for Research into Nationality Problems. In 1927 he resigned his membership in the PPS in the wake of the May Coup, and became an activist of the Sanation camp and the Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government (BBWR). In the same year, he also assumed the post of head of the Eastern Department in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. From 1930 he held a Sejm seat on behalf of the BBWR and was deputy chairman of its Sejm Club. He was actively involved in the government negotiations regarding the Kellogg–Briand Pact and the situation of the Ukrainian minority. He was a champion of a Polish-Ukrainian agreement directed against the Soviet Union. Hołówko was murdered by Ukrainian Nationalists in Truskawiec on the 29th of August, 1931. His major works include: Przez dwa fronty. Ze wspomnień emisariusza politycznego z 1918 r. (1931); Prezydent Gabriel Narutowicz, życie i działalność (1924); O zmianę konstytucji. Uwagi z powodu rządowego projektu wzmocnienia władzy wykonawczej (1926); Kwestia narodowościowa w Polsce (1922), and Dlaczego trzeba zmienić konstytucję (1930).