No and Yes...

No: "Progression" is tied to boss fights. For example, you must defeat the first boss to get a drop (antlers) that allow you to build a pickaxe. Now you can mine copper/tin to build better gear.

Yes: There are mods/cheats or even cheesy ways to overcome this if that's what you want to do. You could use the "devcommands" and just spawn up an antler (or even a pickaxe) and negate the need for the boss fight. Or, you could just choose to stay at the beginning stage and never progress to mining/copper/tin (but that will limit which biomes you could safely explore).

That said, eating provides HP and stamina boosts ... but you cannot die from not eating. So it kind of depends on what you are looking for as a "survival" experience.