Born in Athens, he entered the Hellenic Army Academy in 1976 and graduated in 1980 as an Infantry 2nd Lieutenant.

[1] He followed a career in the Hellenic Army's special forces, including as a company commander in the Special Forces Training Centre (1981–82) and in the 2nd Paratrooper Squadron (1982–86), followed by a stint as an instructor in the NATO International Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol School in Germany (1986–88).

[1] He also graduated from the Hellenic Navy's elite special warfare Underwater Demolition Unit (MYK).

In 1995–96 he was deputy commander in the Hellenic Army's Unorthodox Warfare Training Centre, before going on to command the Greek force (ΕΛΔΥΒ) participating in SFOR in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as the wider BELUGA (Belgium-Luxemburg-Greece-Austria) group of which the Greek force formed part.

He speaks fluently English, German, Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian, and has a working knowledge of Italian and Spanish.