[1] Kohli was born in London on 30 November 1971,[2] to a social worker and a teacher, who had emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1966 from India.

[4] Kohli's parents could afford to move him, aged six, and his brothers to be educated by the Jesuits at St Aloysius' College, a Roman Catholic school in Central Glasgow.

In December 2006, the Sunday Mail revealed that Kohli would be starring in a major ITV thriller, Losing Gemma.

[4] Kohli has also starred in BBC Three's Rush Hour as an intolerant taxicab driver,[10] and on the same channel in Phoo Action as a television news presenter.

Kohli made a brief cameo in a speaking role as himself in an episode of BBC's VideoGaiden, where he received a fish in the mail as a gift from the hosts in an attempt to recreate the Nintendo game Animal Crossing.

[citation needed] In 2012, he appeared on the Channel 4 comedy programme Fresh Meat as a dentistry lecturer Dr Minaj.

In 2014, Kohli joined the rest of the cast of Still Game in the comeback live show at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow.