Kojomkul was born in the Suusamyr valley in 1889 and died in 1955 at the age of 66. As an adult he stood 2.3m tall (7 feet 5 inches) and weighed 164kg (nearly 26 stone). Encouraged by his superhuman size and strength, he participated in many competitive bouts of strength in his youth. On one occasion, he took part in a wrestling competition in the Toktogul area where he beat many better-known wrestlers and won the prize of 50 sheep and several mares, which he is said to have distributed to the poor of his village. By the late 1920s there was no-one to rival him in Kyrgyzstan, and in the region as a whole the only challenge came from the Kazakh wrestler Cholok Balaban who he eventually fought and beat in the 23rd minute of an inter-republic wrestling contest.