diff --git a/Lib/distutils/tests/test_bdist_dumb.py b/Lib/distutils/tests/test_bdist_dumb.py
--- a/Lib/distutils/tests/test_bdist_dumb.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/tests/test_bdist_dumb.py
@@ -24,6 +24,12 @@
 except ImportError:
     ZLIB_SUPPORT = False
 
+try:
+    os.path.normpath(sys.prefix).encode("utf8")
+    PREFIX_NOT_UTF8 = False
+except UnicodeEncodeError:
+    PREFIX_NOT_UTF8 = True
+
 
 class BuildDumbTestCase(support.TempdirManager,
                         support.LoggingSilencer,
@@ -42,6 +48,7 @@
         super(BuildDumbTestCase, self).tearDown()
 
     @unittest.skipUnless(ZLIB_SUPPORT, 'Need zlib support to run')
+    @unittest.skipIf(PREFIX_NOT_UTF8, 'prefix is not encodable to utf8')
     def test_simple_built(self):
 
         # let's create a simple package
diff --git a/Lib/distutils/tests/test_install.py b/Lib/distutils/tests/test_install.py
--- a/Lib/distutils/tests/test_install.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/tests/test_install.py
@@ -16,6 +16,13 @@
 
 from distutils.tests import support
 
+try:
+    os.path.normpath(sys.prefix).encode("utf8")
+    PREFIX_NOT_UTF8 = False
+except UnicodeEncodeError:
+    PREFIX_NOT_UTF8 = True
+
+
 class InstallTestCase(support.TempdirManager,
                       support.EnvironGuard,
                       support.LoggingSilencer,
@@ -166,6 +173,7 @@
         cmd.user = 'user'
         self.assertRaises(DistutilsOptionError, cmd.finalize_options)
 
+    @unittest.skipIf(PREFIX_NOT_UTF8, 'prefix is not encodable to utf8')
     def test_record(self):
 
         install_dir = self.mkdtemp()