He studied at Leipzig, taught at the Saalfeld Progymnasium (1837) and at the Dresden Kreuzschule (1840). In February 1849, Köchly was elected to the lower house of the Kingdom of Saxony, but that same year was forced to flee to Brussels on account of his participation in the May insurrection. He was appointed professor of classical philology at Zürich in 1851, and at Heidelberg in 1864. He was a member of the Reichstag from 1871 to 1873 and attached himself to the Progressive Party.