On Christmas Eve 1922, Żabczyński debuted at Reduta as the group’s permanent actor, playing the roles of Archangel Gabriel and Chleburad in Leon Schiller’s Pastoral. At Reduta he met the actress Maria Zielenkiewicz, whom he married in 1923. The young couple later performed at the avant-garde Wojciech Bogusławski Theatre under the direction of the Schiller-Zelwerowicz duo (the theatre was closed in 1926 due to insufficient funding). He performed at the National Theatre and the Polish Theatre, where he collaborated with artists he already knew – Osterwa and Schiller, as well as Aleksander Węgierko and Teofil Trzciński. In 1927, he left to perform on the stages of Lviv. On his return, in the 1930s, he joined the famous Warsaw cabarets, including Morskie Oko (later Perskie Oko), Cyrulik Warszawski, Wielka Rewia and the Kameleon Theatre. At the same time, he developed his film career – it was the cinema that brought him wide fame and recognition. The author of Żabczyński’s biography, Ryszard Wolański, emphasises that subsequent film roles were written especially for the actor, as, before the war, his name had the power to attract audiences regardless of who directed or wrote the picture.
He debuted in Czerwony Błazen (The Red Clown), a detective film directed by Henryk Szaro, in which two other stars of the interwar period, Eugeniusz Bodo and Adolf Dymsza, also starred. Before the outbreak of World War II, he appeared in nearly 30 films, collaborating with the aforementioned Henryk Szaro, as well as with Ryszard Ordyński, Michał Waszyński, and Konrad Tom, performing iconic songs (the music to many of which was written by Henryk Wars, including Ach, Jak Przyjemnie (Ah, How Lovely), Przyjdzie Dzień (A Day Will Come) or Na Moje Wady Nie Ma Już Rady (Can’t Do Much About My Faults Anymore). In 1939 alone, he starred in as many as five films, three of which premiered during the German occupation.