In 1965-70, he studied composition and music theory in Bogusław Schaeffer’s class at the State Higher School of Music in Kraków. In 1978, he completed a 2-month scholarship in Paris, granted by the French government. In France, Rychlik took part in the electroacoustic composition courses of Groupe de Recherche Musicales (GRM) at the Radio France’s Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique. Since 1972, he has been a lecturer at the Academy of Music in Kraków. In 2002, he was nominated a Professor. He is a member of the Inter-Cathedral Group for Music Analysis and Interpretation of the Academy. For many years, he cooperated with the Animated Film Studio in Kraków. He is a co-founder of the Studio of Spatial Music of the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków. In this theatre, in 1991-98 he headed the department of music and sound realization. In 2004-05, he was director of the Institute of Composition, Conducting and Theory of Music at the Academy of Music in Kraków.
His works were performed at many festivals of new music, including the "Warsaw Autumn", "Poznań Music Spring", and the festival of the International Contemporary Music Society.
Józef Rychlik received a number of awards and distinctions for his compositional work, including 2nd prize (1st not awarded) at the Young Composers’ Competition of the Polish Composers’ Union for Sekwencje przestrzenne for chamber orchestra (Spatial Sequences, trans. MG; 1971), 3rd prize for an organ work at the International Composers’ Competition in Szczecin for Grave-ap for organ (1973), a distinction at the VII Concours International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges for Podtytuł - Sen Eurydyki for tape (Subtitle – Eurydice’s Dream, trans. MG; 1978), and an award at the National Short Film Festival in Kraków for the music to Metamorfozy (Metamorphoses, trans. MG), directed by Łucja Mróz-Raynoch. He is the protagonist of Jerzy Ridan’s documentary film Józef Rychlik – kompozytor (Józef Rychlik – composer, trans. MG; 1993).
For his activity he was awarded the Medal of the Commission of National Education (2005), the Gold Medal for Long Service of the President of the Republic of Poland (2008), and the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis (2016)