He was Assistant General Secretary of the President alongside Emmanuel Macron from 2012 to 2014, then Director of the National Health Insurance Fund from 2014 to 2020.
His maternal grandmother, Nathalie Sarraute (1900–1999), was a Jewish woman of Russian background who came to France as a child.
On his father's side, he has a half-sister and a half-brother, Ève and Matthieu Ricard, who is a Buddhist monk and a writer.
A graduate of the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Public Service section, class of 1988) and former student of the École nationale d'administration (class of Léon-Gambetta, 1991–1993), Nicolas Revel joined the Court of Auditors as legal adviser.
After Bertrand Delanoë's victory in the 2001 municipal elections, the new mayor of Paris chose him as deputy chief of staff (in 2003).