[2] Karl Frederik received a good education at the University of Copenhagen and studied under Johan Louis Ussing [da], a professor of philology and archeology there.

Initially, he searched for a job that would put his philology to use and tutored Latin and French to children of wealthy families, but he couldn't find a permanent position.

Kinch traveled through the region five times[note 1] visited Macedonia as the first Danish archaeologist to do so, recorded various ancient inscriptions he found there, and published them.

[4][5] Among his travels in Chalkidiki was a site he (correctly) believed to be of the ancient city of Olynthus (although this would only be confirmed many decades later with the work of David Moore Robinson), as well as finding and identifying the location of Stagira, the birthplace of Aristotle.

[1] Kinch was the first to describe and define Macedonian chamber tombs, distinguished by their vaulted roof, ornate façade, and Doric frieze above the entrance.

The tomb was later greatly damaged by the opening of a railway line, leaving Kinch and his artist friend Oscar Willerup's recreation the only surviving record of the painting.

[4] Kinch remained on good terms with his former teacher, as Professor Ussing had also traveled Greece in his youth in the Thessaly region.

[6] Kinch worked with the Carlsberg Foundation to select a potentially fruitful site for a new archaeological expedition, visiting both Smyrna and Cyrene in the Eastern Mediterranean in 1900 to 1901.

While he was published and eventually became a member of the expected learned societies, this was late in his life, and he never held a permanent university or museum position.

One of his most significant findings, the artwork he arranged of "Kinch's Tomb" with Oscar Willerup, was only widely available a year before his death with his 1920 journal article.