Born in Canada to ethnic Greek parents in 1963, Sachinidis grew up in Larisa.

[1] Sachinidis is an economist for the National Bank of Greece and served as an economic advisor to Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis from 2000 to 2004.

In 2007, Sachinidis was elected on the list of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) to represent the Larissa constituency in the Hellenic Parliament.

Following the victory of PASOK in the national elections of 2009, he was made Deputy Minister of Finance under George Papaconstantnou.

[2] On 3 January 2015, it was announced that Sachinidis would join former prime minister Papandreou in leaving PASOK to found the new Movement of Democratic Socialists.