Khoury was born in Rechmaya, to Lebanese Maronite Christian parents in a town in the Aley district, Mount Lebanon governorate on 10 August 1890.

The Pact also distributed seats in the National Assembly in a ratio of six Christians to five Muslims, based on the 1932 census, which has since been modified to represent followers of both religions equally.

Khoury's years in office were marked by great economic growth, but the 1948 Arab-Israeli War in which Lebanon was on the Arab side strained the Lebanese economy with its financial cost and with the influx of some 100,000 Palestinian refugees.

In 1951 an alliance was formed between Camille Chamoun, Pierre Gemayel, Raymond Eddé, Kamal Jumblatt, Phalange and Syrian National Party under the unlikely name of the "Socialist Front".

[5] She was the sister of banker and intellectual Michel Shiha who helped El Khoury financially and introduced him the ideas about the confessional power-sharing and free market economy.