Giorgi Khimshiashvili was born in the noble family from the eastern Georgian region of Kakheti, then part of the Russian Empire. His father, Prince Nikoloz Khimshiashvili (Khimshiyev) was assassinated in 1910, as police concluded, for helping the authorities to reveal the murderers of Prince Ilia Chavchavadze, a leading Georgian writer and intellectual. Giorgi Khimshiashvili was educated at the Nikolayevsky Cavalry College in St. Petersburg and fought in the Russian ranks as cornet in World War I. He took part in the Caucasus and Persian campaigns.