Rena Tzolaki was born in Heraklion, Crete in 1930. She studied painting under Moralis at the Athens School of Fine Arts and engraving and book art under Jean Kefalinos. She was grabted a scholarship by the State Scholarships Foundation (I.K.Y.) to specialize in lithography and she continued her studies in lithography and book art at the École des Beaux Arts and the École Estienne in Paris (1960 – 1963).

She settled in Paris where she held solo exhibitions, but also in Athens, London, Thessaloniki, France and took part in many international exhibitions, including the Paris Youth Biennale (1963), the Venice Biennale (1970), the Krakow Biennale (1970) and the Bradford Biennale (1972). In 1975, Rena Tzolaki received the Florence Gould Prize by the Paris Academy of Fine Arts for her work in lithography. She is a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece and the Maison des Artistes.