Yannoulis Chalepas was born on August 24, 1851, and grew up in an environment of dust, marble, and clay. His father, Ioannis, was among the greatest craftsmen of the island, a successful professional with significant business activities in the Aegean, Smyrna, and the coasts of Asia Minor, Mount Athos, Bucharest, Syros, Athens, and Piraeus. The incessant sound of hammers and mallets must have significantly influenced Yannoulis, the first of the family's five children.

In 1869, the entire family moved to Athens so that Yannoulis could attend sculpture classes at the Polytechnic. It was a time when he woke up in the morning full of dreams, desires, and hopes. It was a period when he was eager to express his talent and develop his passion for creation. His teacher was the Greco-Bavarian Leonidas Drosis. He graduated with honors in 1872, at the young age of twenty-one.

After returning to Athens, he visited his village and attempted to ask for the hand of his beloved Marigo Christodoulou. Her family refused, an event that marked the beginning of his downfall. In January 1878, the mother of Sophia Afentaki, who had passed away at just 18 years of age, visited him in his workshop in Athens.

In 1888, after several crises and suicide attempts, the sculptor was admitted to the Mental Hospital of Corfu as 'suffering from dementia'. He remained there for 13 years, 10 months, and 27 days, until June 6, 1902, when his mother took him home as 'calm'. She still considered sculpture responsible for her son's illness and, therefore, destroyed any of his creations.

In 1930, his niece, Eirini Chalepas, encouraged him to move to her house at 35 Dafnomili Street in Neapoli. The ingenious sculptor found himself in Athens, where he worked intensively. His favorite subjects that he revisited were 'Medea', 'Satyr and Eros', and 'The Fairy Tale of Beauty'. He had become a recognized personality in the arts.