Tulenheimo was born in 1922 to Finnish immigrants in Esperanza, in the State of Bahía, where most Finnish-Santiaganos lived. In 1940 (allegedly to avoid Conscription into the Bellinsgauzenia War), he first attended the University of San Martín, where he learned Politics. In 1945, he began working as an aide and translator for Santiago's Finnish Ambassador, and worked his way up. In 1962, he became the Santiagano Ambassador to Maudland (though it was only a semi-Autonomous Norwegian territory at the time; most of Antarctica's nations still sent Ambassadors to Maudland), which was a fairly high-profile position due the close relationship between the two countries.