After finishing high school early, he attended University of Chicago and graduated with a degree in biochemistry at age 19.
He served in the United States Navy for a time, then returned to Chicago for his Ph.D., which he received in 1948 for work with Earl Evans.
[2] While there he served as co-founding editor of the Journal of Virology, launched in 1967 under the leadership of Kozloff, Norman Salzman, and founding editor-in-chief Robert R.
[2] Kozloff's research in virology concentrated on bacteriophages, or viruses that infect bacteria; he was part of the network of scientists studying similar problems known at the time as the "phage group".
Kozloff was particularly interested in the biochemistry of viral replication and was among the early users of radiolabeling to trace this process.