Bogusław Kopczak was born on October 7, 1953, in Katowice, to Tadeusz and Genowefa Kopczak. He graduated from Primary School No. 10 named after Maria Skłodowska-Curie in Katowice, and then from a vocational school, where he trained as a painter-decorator. From October 4, 1979, to February 14, 1981, he worked as a painter at a regional construction and renovation company in Katowice-Ochojec.

For financial reasons, on February 23, 1981, he took up employment at KWK Wujek as an underground worker. He was a member of NSZZ Solidarność, although the exact date of his joining is unknown. He took part in the miners’ protest at KWK “Wujek" from December 13 to 16, 1981.

On December 16, during the pacification of the strike by militia and military forces, he was shot in the abdomen and died on the spot. The autopsy conducted in December 1981 showed that the bullet passed through his body, damaging internal organs; the direct cause of death was internal hemorrhage.

Bogusław Kopczak was buried on December 19, 1981, at the cemetery on Francuska Street in Katowice. Approximately 200 mourners attended the funeral, which was heavily monitored by militia and security service officers, as well as ZOMO units.

He left behind his wife, Teresa (née Lampka), and a daughter, Katarzyna (born 1979).

On August 29, 1990, he was posthumously awarded the Gold Cross of Merit with Swords by the President of the Republic of Poland in exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski. On December 7, 1992, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by the President of Poland, Lech Wałęsa. In 2015, he was also posthumously awarded the Cross of Freedom and Solidarity.

He is commemorated, together with the other miners killed on December 16, 1981, by the Monument to the Fallen Miners of “Wujek" (1991).