Cordon-Cardo was born in Calella, a seaside town in the Province of Barcelona and was determined to study medicine and pathology from his childhood days when he asked for a microscope for his 10th birthday.

[1][2] After earning his PhD from Cornell in 1985 with his dissertation Immunoanatomic Dissection of the Normal Human Adult Kidney and Urinary Tract, Cordon-Cardo became a research fellow in immunopathology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

In an effort to overcome the stigma of cancer in his native Spain he wrote an article about his experiences for the Sunday magazine of the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia in 2006.

In the article, for which he won an award from the Spanish Society of Oncology, he highlighted the resources available for cancer patients and "described his feelings of fear after the diagnosis, overcoming the dread, and the support from his wife, doctors, nurses, and friends" during his treatment in 2002–2003.

"[6][7] Considered one of the pioneers in oncologic molecular pathology and the mechanisms of tumor suppression,[1][2][5] Cordon-Cardo has authored or co-authored over 500 academic papers and numerous book chapters.