Born in Leiria, Cardoso e Cunha studied at the University of Lisbon and then worked as chemical engineer and in business administration.

[1] He was elected to the Assembly of the Republic in 1978,[2] and in September 1978 he was appointed as State Secretary for Foreign Trade, a junior ministerial post in the Democratic Alliance government led by Alfredo Nobre da Costa.

In November 1978, the new Prime Minister Carlos Mota Pinto appointed Cardoso e Cunha as State Secretary for Industrial Renewal.

He was replaced in 1997 after a change of government, and became president of the state-owned airline TAP Air Portugal until 2004.

[1] In 2006, Cardoso e Cunha was declared bankrupt by the Lisbon Court of Commerce.