[1] Erlis Terdikbayev was born on 27 May 1969 in the village of Issyk-Ata in the Chuy Region of the Kyrgyz SSR.

He joined the Soviet Army in 1983, and graduated from the Alma-Ata Higher All-Arms Command School (now the Military Institute of the Kazakh Ground Forces) in 1990 after spending 4 years there as a cadet.

During the 1990s and the 2000s, Terdikbayev served in various military units of the poorly equipped Armed Forces of the Kyrgyz Republic.

In 2017, he was appointed as the commander of the newly formed Kyrgyz Land Forces.

On 21 April 2018 he replaced Colonel Mirbek Kasimkulov as the chairman of the State Committee for Defense Affairs as a result of Prime Minister Sapar Isakov's vote of no confidence by parliament.