Francis Kurkdjian was born in Paris in 1969 to a family of Armenian descent whose grandparents had fled the Ottoman Empire during the Armenian Genocide before eventually settling in France. As a teenager he pursued ballet and auditioned for the Paris Opera Ballet School in 1983; when that path did not work out, he redirected a fascination with scent he had held since childhood, and by his mid-teens had decided to become a perfumer.

He trained at ISIPCA, the perfumery school in Versailles, graduating in 1993, and joined Quest International in Paris the same year. His breakthrough arrived only two years later: in 1995, still in his mid-twenties, he composed Le Male for Jean Paul Gaultier, a lavender-and-vanilla men's fragrance that went on to become one of the best-selling masculine scents ever released. The success established him as an in-demand nose, and over the following decade he worked on commissions for houses including Burberry, Elie Saab, and Guerlain, and co-created Narciso Rodriguez for Her (2003) alongside perfumer Christine Nagel.

In 2009 Kurkdjian partnered with businessman Marc Chaya to launch his own house, Maison Francis Kurkdjian, near Place Vendôme in Paris. The Maison's 2015 release Baccarat Rouge 540 — an amber composition built around saffron, jasmine, and a pronounced dose of the woody-amber molecule ambroxan — became one of the defining niche fragrances of its era, its popularity amplified heavily through social media. The house's growth led LVMH to acquire a majority stake in 2017, with Kurkdjian continuing on as creative director.

Dior further recognized his standing in the industry by naming him its perfume creative director in October 2021, adding stewardship of one of fragrance's most storied catalogs to his own label. Earlier honors include the Prix François Coty for lifetime achievement in 2001 and his induction as a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2008; in July 2026 he was named a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur, an honor he dedicated to the grandparents who survived the Armenian Genocide.