[1] Andreev was born in the former village of Maklen, Serres (neighbouring Duvista), then in the Ottoman Empire.
He finished the Bulgarian Pedagogical School in Serres and became a teacher in Odrin Thrace.
During 1907, Nikola Andreev was a freedom fighter of the Drama revolutionary band of Mihail Daev.
After the Young Turk Revolution he was no longer freedom fighter and started working as a teacher.
Until the beginning of the Balkan Wars, he was a leader of a revolutionary band in the region of Smolyan, and later he became a member of a non-combatant support service of the 13th Kukush Battalion of the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps.