Born in Sukhumi, Abkhaz ASSR, Georgian SSR, Tevzadze graduated from the Tbilisi State University (TSU) Faculty of Philosophy in 1971 and Institute of Foreign Languages in 1978.

[2] In April 1998, President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze dismissed Defense Minister Vardiko Nadibaidze, a career Soviet and Russian army officer, and replaced him with more Western-oriented Tevzadze.

Amid persistent budgetary shortage and a series of attempted mutinies in the army, Tevzadze attempted to implement some reforms in the Georgian military with the declared aim to help transition “from old Soviet model to the modern forces, applicable to the international standards.”[3] He was pursuant to a pro-NATO line declared by Georgia in 1998 and rejected the post of deputy head of the Coordinating Staff of the CIS Armed Forces in 2001, saying he saw no point in multilateral military cooperation between CIS states.

[5] Tevzadze tried to remain neutral during the tense days of “Rose Revolution” in November 2003, when the opposition protests forced President Shevardnadze to resign.

On 5 May 2009 Tevzadze's name was mentioned in a video footage released by the Georgian police as an evidence of the planned disorders in Georgia, of which the failed mutiny in army was part.