Rabbi Chikli is a Wexner-Israel Fellow [2001] graduate of the Master in Public Administration Program of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and has an M.A. in Jewish Studies from the Schechter Institute for Jewish Studies and a B.A. in International Relations and Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from the Hebrew University. He is studying towards a D.H.L. (doctor of Hebrew Letters) in Jewish Education.

Rabbi Chikli was born in Tunisia and immigrated to Israel from France at the age of 19. He is married with 3 children.