Sir Eduardo Paolozzi was born in Crown Place, Leith, of Italian parents. As a boy he attended Leith Walk School and Holy Cross Academy. He trained at Edinburgh College of Art, worked in Paris for several years shortly after the end of the Second World War, and then taught in London.

Sir Eduardo has been Professor of Sculpture at the Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste, Munich, since 1981, and he holds honorary degrees from several universities. He was admitted a member of the Royal Academy in 1979. He was awarded a CBE in 1968, and has been Her Majesty's Sculptor-in-Ordinary in Scotland since 1986. He received his knighthood in 1988.