Born in Sukhumi, Abkhaz ASSR, Georgian SSR, Tevzadze graduated from the Tbilisi State University (TSU) Faculty of Philosophy in 1971 and Institute of Foreign Languages in 1978. He then obtained Ph.D. at the Georgian Academy of Sciences Institute of Philosophy where he worked as a researcher and also lectured in history of philosophy and mathematical logic at the TSU for several years. He also took an interest in martial arts and was a co-founder and the first President of the Georgian Karate Federation in 1989. The Federation was formed on April 8, 1989, a day before the Soviet troops used force against a peaceful pro-independence rally in Tbilisi. Tevzadze and several other members of the organization resisted the advancing soldiers to secure a corridor for the protesters fleeing the scene of the crackdown.