Yakiv Tkachenko was born on February 2, 1979 in the city Dnipro, (old name Dnipropetrovsk), Ukraine. As a child he dreamed of becoming a doctor as his mother, but fate was different. At the age of 14, Yakiv accidentally got to the amateur theater and this determined his further path. After leaving school in 1996, Yakiv entered the Dnipropetrovsk Theater College as a Drama Actor. After graduation, he was invited to the Dnipropetrovsk Academic Theater of Russian Drama. (Now the Dnieper Academic Theater of Drama and Comedy) In 2011, Yakiv Tkachenko joined Ukraine Karpenko-Karyi National University of Theater, Film and Television where he studies Drama Directing. His movie career began in 2003, and since 2016, with the beginning of the heyday of Ukrainian cinema, he began to actively starring in feature films and series. In 2018, he was nominated for the Ukrainian national film award "Golden Dzyga" as the best supporting actor for the role of Slavik in the movie "Pryputni" ("The Strayed") director Arkadiy Nepytaliuk.