Born in Paris in 1910, Jordan graduated from the Free School of Political Sciences with a degree in literature and law before becoming an associate of Louis Joxe at the Center for Foreign Policy Studies and of future fellow Resistance hero Pierre Brossolette at the weekly review L'Europe nouvelle from 1934 to 1937.

[2] Already a cavalry veteran thanks to his military service with the 4th Dragoons in 1931 and in Morocco when the war broke out in 1939, Jordan was initially mobilised into light-cavalry regiment the 2nd Spahis.

[citation needed] Jordan himself was lucky to avoid capture the same month during a raid alongside the Special Interrogation Group on Derna airfield.

Initially serving posts in Athens and Bonn, in 1954 he became chief of staff to Minister for Moroccan and Tunisian Affairs Christian Fouchet under the presidency of Pierre Mendès France.

[6] Jordan was portrayed by French actor César Domboy in BBC series SAS: Rogue Heroes, a six part drama based upon Ben Macintyre's book of the same name.