Educated at the prestigious Berklee College of Music Eckhardt has also collaborated on projects with guitarist Larry Coryell as well as keyboardist Tom Coster.

His first major undertaking came in 1985 when European guitar prodigy Torsten de Winkel asked him to join his recording ensemble with Michael Brecker and Alphonse Mouzon, making quite a splash in the European scene, and later his touring band with Ernie Watts and Steve Smith, leading to an invitation to Eckhardt and Torsten to join Smith's US-based group Vital Information.

[1] Meanwhile, he had accepted a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music and began to establish himself in the US, working with the likes of Aydin Esen, Stanley Clarke, Tiger Okoshi and Bob Moses.

Afterwards, Eckhardt moved to the San Francisco bay area and turned his attention to composing, while performing with the Billy Cobham International Quartet and with Garaj Mahal.

[2] In 2000, he released his first CD as a leader, entitled "Honour Simplicity, Respect the Flow" and featuring Aydın Esen, Courtney Pine, Zakir Hussain and others.