He was born in the village Chala in what is now Shida Kartli region (then under Russian rule) to a prominent Georgian aristocratic family. Educated at the Tiflis nobility gymnasium, he enrolled in the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon regiment in 1850. Amilakhvari spent the first three years of his military career fighting the recalcitrant mountainous clans during the Caucasian War and was wounded at the action of Chakpak on 31 August 1853. During the Crimean War (1853-1856), he fought on the Caucasus front against the Ottoman Empire and distinguished himself at the Battle of Choloki where Amilakhvari, with his irregular unit of Georgian hunters completely destroyed an entire Ottoman battalion. After another three years of his service in Chechnya (1856-1859), Amilakhvari was promoted to colonel and assigned to command the Nizhny Novgorod dragoon regiment from 1864 to 1873.