Masaaki Kukino was born on 2 February 1964 in Kurashiki, Japan. After graduating from university with a degree in art, he enrolled at a school to study the textile trades, after falling under the spell of traditional Japanese art during his summer holidays in Kyoto. He then heard about Konami and began working there part-time, before joining the company in April 1986, at around the same time as Hideo Kojimabut as a graphic designer in the arcade branch.

Nevertheless, Kukino signed the game design of almost every game he has played, including his very first published title, Fast Lane (1987), a maze game with cars. In 1988, he helped the struggling team atHaunted Castle (1988, the only arcade episode of Castlevania) to complete development in two months. He created many other games for Konami, including Crime Fighters (1989) or Speed King (1995).

For Asterix (1992), he carried out intensive research, reading each volume, watching the films and travelling around Europe. The result is far more faithful to the original works than previous Japanese games based on the comics, so much so that some French journalists believe it was created in France!

His career at Konami was also marked by Silent Scope (1999), an innovative shooting game in which the player manipulates a sniper rifle with its own LCD screen. In 2002, he was asked to create the slot machine Silent Scope Fortune Hunter for the UK market. As Masaaki Kukino and his wife had always wanted to live in the UK, they stayed there for two months, after which Kukino left Konami to join Gamewaxa company that has just been set up there. He made three games there, including Chase H.Q. 2 (2007).

He then returned to Japan for personal reasons and joined SNK-Playmore where it produces King of Fighters XII (2009) and XIII (2010). Kukino leaves Japan in 2010 to work at Wahlep Tec in China, but returned to SNK in November 2013. However, he left the company again in 2015 to join the development studio Sotsu.