Makis Theofylaktopoulos had his first drawing lessons with Panos Sarafianos and later enrolled at the School of Fine Arts, Athens, where he studied painting under Yiannis Moralis, graduating in 1965.

Between 1969 and 1974 he worked in Lausanne, Paris and New York on a scholarship from the Ford Foundation.

In 1988 he was elected a professor at the School of Fine Arts, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he held a teaching position until 2005.

Theofylaktopoulos is one of the pioneers of Greek expressionism. The human figure is central in his work, through abstract configuration set in a two-dimensional space full of emotional tension. The end product being always aware of the final aesthetic result.

He held many solo exhibitions in Greece and internationally such as the 1965 Panhellenic Young Artists Exhibition where he was awarded the Gold Metal, the 1965 and 1967 Panhellenic Exhibitions, the 1967and 1977 Alexandria Biennale, the Grand Palais, Paris in 1979, the Europalia, Brussels in 1982, and the Travelling Exhibition of Greek Art in Toulouse in 1986.

In 2010 a major retrospective exhibition under the title ‘Matter Vicissitutes’ was organized by the Benaki Museum.