Born in Osaka, Kodama Yukio graduated from Kansai University (Kansai Gakuin Daigaku) where he studied economics. Although he had no formal art training, he worked privately with Tamara Konosuke. In 1939 he entered the army and served for seven years in China. In 1956 he moved from Osaka to Tokyo. In 1957, at the age of 41, he made the first of many trips to Europe. He lived in Paris for one year and painted lively street scenes of everyday life and in 1959 he exhibited these paintings at the Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi and at Umeda Hankyu. In 1964 he traveled to America and Mexico. At this time, Kodama greatly admired Rouault whose surface application he emulated.

In 1973 Kodama had a solo exhibition at the Ginza Nichido Salon, and in 1981 he published two print portfolios, one entitled "The four seasons in France" and the other "Paris/12 months". His 1990 watercolor portfolio titled "Painting Europe" was first exhibited at the Nichido Gallery and in 1991 he exhibited drawings at the Ginza Matsuya Gallery.