Born on the island of Imvros, Ottoman Empire on July 29, 1911 to Maria and Athanasios Koukouzis, he had two sisters Virginia and Chrysanthi and a brother Panagiotis.
Ordained a priest in 1940 in Lowell, Massachusetts, he served at St. George Church, Hartford, Connecticut, while teaching and serving as assistant dean of the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Theological School, then in Pomfret, Connecticut and now in Brookline, Massachusetts.