diff --git a/tests/framework/callbacks/test_base_checkpointer.py b/tests/framework/callbacks/test_base_checkpointer.py
index e43ad50531..aecc3540ce 100644
--- a/tests/framework/callbacks/test_base_checkpointer.py
+++ b/tests/framework/callbacks/test_base_checkpointer.py
@@ -122,6 +122,9 @@ class BaseCheckpointerTest(unittest.TestCase):
     cuda_available: bool = torch.cuda.is_available()
     distributed_available: bool = torch.distributed.is_available()
 
+    def tearDown(self) -> None:
+        os.environ.pop('WORLD_SIZE', None)
+
     def test_save_every_n_train_steps(self) -> None:
         input_dim = 2
         dataset_len = 10
@@ -1199,6 +1202,17 @@ def _test_directory_path_synced() -> None:
             if get_global_rank() == 0:
                 shutil.rmtree(temp_dir)  # delete temp directory
 
+    def test_dist_not_initialized(self) -> None:
+        """
+        Tests that BaseCheckpointSaver cannot be initialized without dist being initialized
+        if world size > 1
+        """
+        os.environ["WORLD_SIZE"] = "2"
+        with self.assertRaisesRegex(
+            RuntimeError, "Running in a distributed environment"
+        ):
+            BaseCheckpointSaver("foo")
+
 
 class MyValLossUnit(TrainUnit[Batch]):
     def __init__(self) -> None:
diff --git a/tests/framework/callbacks/test_dcp_saver.py b/tests/framework/callbacks/test_dcp_saver.py
index 7b8fe71414..62f73a29fc 100644
--- a/tests/framework/callbacks/test_dcp_saver.py
+++ b/tests/framework/callbacks/test_dcp_saver.py
@@ -54,6 +54,9 @@
 
 
 class DistributedCheckpointSaverTest(unittest.TestCase):
+    def tearDown(self) -> None:
+        os.environ.pop("WORLD_SIZE", None)
+
     def test_save_restore(self) -> None:
         input_dim = 2
         dataset_len = 10
diff --git a/tests/framework/callbacks/test_torchsnapshot_saver.py b/tests/framework/callbacks/test_torchsnapshot_saver.py
index ddf617bb89..b47f3db2f8 100644
--- a/tests/framework/callbacks/test_torchsnapshot_saver.py
+++ b/tests/framework/callbacks/test_torchsnapshot_saver.py
@@ -40,6 +40,9 @@
 
 
 class TorchSnapshotSaverTest(unittest.TestCase):
+    def tearDown(self) -> None:
+        os.environ.pop("WORLD_SIZE", None)
+
     def test_save_restore(self) -> None:
         input_dim = 2
         dataset_len = 10
diff --git a/torchtnt/framework/callbacks/base_checkpointer.py b/torchtnt/framework/callbacks/base_checkpointer.py
index ddf02c420e..81a065ccf9 100644
--- a/torchtnt/framework/callbacks/base_checkpointer.py
+++ b/torchtnt/framework/callbacks/base_checkpointer.py
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@
     MetricData,
     Phase,
 )
-from torchtnt.utils.distributed import PGWrapper
+from torchtnt.utils.distributed import get_world_size, PGWrapper
 from torchtnt.utils.rank_zero_log import rank_zero_info, rank_zero_warn
 
 logger: logging.Logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
@@ -55,6 +55,9 @@ class BaseCheckpointer(Callback, metaclass=abc.ABCMeta):
     This will be used by this base class to ensure the integrity of the checkpoint. This is a list because some checkpointers may allow more than one valid
     ``metadata_fnames``, depending on storage or optimization configurations.
 
+    If running in a distributed environment, the default process group should be initialized prior to instantiating this Callback. This is done automatically if
+    using `AutoUnit`, which should be instantiated first.
+
     Args:
         dirpath: Parent directory to save checkpoints to.
         save_every_n_train_steps: Frequency of steps with which to save checkpoints during the train epoch. If None, no intra-epoch checkpoints are generated.
@@ -96,6 +99,13 @@ def __init__(
         best_checkpoint_config: Optional[BestCheckpointConfig] = None,
         process_group: Optional[dist.ProcessGroup] = None,
     ) -> None:
+        if get_world_size() > 1 and not dist.is_initialized():
+            raise RuntimeError(
+                "Running in a distributed environment without default process group initialized. "
+                "Call `torch.distributed.init_process_group` before initializing this callback. "
+                "Using `AutoUnit` will do this automatically."
+            )
+
         if save_every_n_train_steps is not None and save_every_n_train_steps <= 0:
             raise ValueError(
                 f"Invalid value passed for save_every_n_train_steps. Expected to receive either None or positive number, but received {save_every_n_train_steps}"
diff --git a/torchtnt/framework/callbacks/dcp_saver.py b/torchtnt/framework/callbacks/dcp_saver.py
index f4c845d1eb..cdef922958 100644
--- a/torchtnt/framework/callbacks/dcp_saver.py
+++ b/torchtnt/framework/callbacks/dcp_saver.py
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ class DistributedCheckpointSaver(BaseCheckpointer):
         knob_options: Additional keyword options for StorageWriter. <https://pytorch.org/docs/stable/distributed.checkpoint.html#torch.distributed.checkpoint.StorageWriter/>
 
     Note:
-        If torch.distributed is available and a process group is initialized, dcp assumes the intention is to save/load checkpoints in distributed fashion.
+        If torch.distributed is available, there should be a process group is initialized. In this case DCP assumes the intention is to save/load checkpoints in distributed fashion.
         Additionally, a gloo process group must be initialized for async_checkpoint. For workloads that require nccl, the recommended initialization is 'cpu:gloo,cuda:nccl'
 
     Note: