Koos (sounding like "koo-iss") is a shortened version for the common name "Jacobus" / "Jakobus", but is also Afrikaans slang for a chamber pot.

Du Toit started out as a poet and novelist in the early 1980s writing under the name André Letoit, to avoid confusion with other writers.

Du Toit grew up in Riversdale, Paarl, Wellington, Kuruman and in Bellville, before the family settled in Stellenbosch[1] (and later in Pretoria), where he spent the last year of high school at Paul Roos Gymnasium.

After school, Du Toit did his compulsory military service: apparently he was so bad at shooting that he was posted in the fire brigade.

Punk skrywer en al hierdie k*k. I decided to stay on the campus for three years anyway because the most important thing about varsity is human knowledge.

Du Toit claims that after ten treatments, he suffered amnesia and effectively can't remember the year 1976 to date.

Toe moes ek van voor af begin werk soek" ("To my great dismay, he discharged me on the spot.

He cites Bob Dylan, Neil Young as well as ex-Beatles George Harrison and John Lennon as musical influences.