His grandfather, Alfredo Domingo Calcagno, rector of the National University of La Plata, was the Argentine ambassador to UNESCO in Paris during the Presidency of Arturo Frondizi.

His father, Alfredo Eric Calcagno, studied at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris before working for the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America for more than twenty years.

Calcagno studied at French schools and, in the early 1990s, graduated from the École Nationale d'Administration in France in public administration and from the Sorbonne in sociology.

Shortly after the election, in December 2005, Calcagno was named Ambassador to France, after Rafael Bielsa had accepted that position only to reject it a day later in public.

Calcagno had to leave his office and return to the Senate in order to vote in favour of the government, as a close tie was due.