Lukša was born on 10 August 1921 to a family of farmers in the village of Juodbūdis, near
Kaunas. He attended , where he joined the catholic youth organization
Ateitis and the far-right,
anti-semitic, and anti-Soviet
Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF). He graduated high school in 1940 and began studying architecture at Vytautas Magnus University. Due to being a member of the LAF, Lukša was imprisoned by the
NKVD in Kaunas during the 1940–41
Soviet occupation of the Baltic states. He was released by the
Wehrmacht following the
invasion of Lithuania by Nazi Germany, and went on to continue his architecture studies. After the return of the
Red Army in 1944, Lukša engaged in the underground movement. At first, he participated as a student, helping out with clandestine matters and unarmed resistance in Kaunas. In 1946, after the arrests of many activists, he left the city and joined
the armed resistance. Within a year, he commanded the Birutė brigade of the
Tauras military district. At the end of 1947, along with fellow partisans Jurgis Krikščiūnas-Rimvydas and Kazimieras Pyplys-Mažytis, Lukša crossed through the
Iron Curtain with the goal of attracting support for the fighters and establishing contacts with Lithuanians in exile. They carried information collected by partisans about Soviet repressions, killings, and deportations, and a letter asking for support from
Pope Pius XII. He arrived in
Sweden and moved from there to
France and
West Germany, where he was trained by French intelligence agents and the
CIA. While in Paris, he met doctor , whom he married on 23 July 1950. During his stay in the West, Lukša wrote
Fighters for Freedom (), a firsthand account of partisan activities in 1944–47. He was parachuted back into Lithuania by the CIA sometime between 1949 and 1950. That year, he was granted the honorary title of "Hero of the Lithuanian Freedom Fighters" (
Laisvės kovos karžygio garbės vardas) and awarded with the Cross of the Freedom Struggle (1st class) by the
Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters. In 1951, he was granted a rank of "Major of Partisans" (
Partizanų majoro laipsnis). Lukša was intensively searched for by the Soviet counterintelligence, before being killed near Pabartupis by the
MGB in the fall of 1951. ==Legacy==