Eli was raised in Houston, Texas, graduating from Concordia Lutheran High School. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the US Army in 1991, where he served for 23 years. He entered the army as an engineer, and several years later, he was reclassified into aviation. One year later, he assessed for the 160th SOAR, was accepted, and served for several years. He completed multiple deployments around the world until 2015.

After retiring in 2015, he worked for several years as a Special Projects Manager for the FBI. He currently serves as a Board Member for Pacific American Group, focusing on team building and strategic communications.

He loves the outdoors, adventure cycling, traveling, diving, climbing, and off-road race car driving.