The first day of competition at Le Golf National southwest of the French capital drew a buoyant crowd who roared on home pair Victor Perez and Matthieu Pavon.
The 60 contenders will all play four rounds in a stroke play format at the 2018 Ryder Cup venue.
The weather, a talking point of the Paris Games, shaped the day, with warm morning sunshine giving way to unsettled afternoon conditions that caused two interruptions of play due to lightning risks.
The first round was concluded about an hour later than scheduled at about 7 pm (1700 GMT).
Matsuyama, the former Masters champion who just missed out on bronze on home soil three years ago in a playoff, posted an eight under par 63, putting Asia's top-ranked player two ahead of Schauffele, whose 65 featured seven birdies and one bogey.
Schauffele, who won last month's British Open to claim his second major title this year, credited himself with steadying his game after a "clanky" start.
"It's Thursday so I'm not really sweating it too much," he told reporters.
Tied in third place at five under were were Chile's Joaquin Niemann, Argentina's Emiliano Grillo and South Korea's Tom Kim.
US world number one Scottie Scheffler was within touch at four under after completing his first round, which he played alongside Ireland’s world number three Rory McIlroy, who was at three under.
Perez hit the opening tee-shot to huge applause. He reached the clubhouse at one under, while Pavon was at one over after 13 holes.
"I was surprised there were a lot of people out here. Victor was in front of me and you could tell how they were cheering for him. It was pretty cool for the first day," Niemann told reporters after his round.
Perez reached the clubhouse at one under while Pavon finished level-par.
The Paris tournament extends golf's short history at the Games, with the sport having returned to the programme in Rio in 2016 after a century-long absence.
