In 1895 he earned his medical doctorate at the University of Vienna, and spent the next year abroad (London and Paris).
He returned to Vienna as an assistant to Leopold von Schrötter (1837–1908), a laryngologist, and began working in the new science of radiology.
In June 1923, along with Guido Holzknecht (1872-1931), he was co-founder of the Wiener Gesellschaft für Röntgenkunde (Vienna Radiology Society).
Eine Revision ihrer technischen Einrichtungen und praktische Methoden (Roentgenology.
[4] Kienböck published his findings in a treatise titled Über traumatische Malazie des Mondbeins und ihre Folgezustände (Traumatic malacia of the lunate and its consequences).