He was part of a group of Palestinian-Jewish RAF pilots sent to train at a flight school in Southern Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe).

[3] At the end of World War II, he served as a transport pilot, and was later stationed in Palestine at RAF Lydda (now Lod).

He served in the Israeli Air Force during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, participating in bombing attacks on the Egyptian front.

Tolkowsky helped Uzia Galil start the technology holding company Elron Electronic Industries in 1962.

He served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Radiation and Radioisotopes of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission.

In 1997, he served on the Ciechanover Commission, which investigated a failed Mossad assassination attempt against Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in Jordan.

Tolkowsky is a Commandeur of the French Legion of Honour (1958), holds a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the Technion[8] Israel Institute of Technology (1980), and holds an award from the joint US-Israel Science and Technology Authority named after Yitzhak Rabin.