Born in Izmir in 1964, Gündem graduated from Anadolu University Faculty of Business Administration. Gündem began his career as a non-commissioned officer in the Turkish Ministry of National Defence in 1982 and retired from the Aegean Army Command after twenty-five years of service. Gündem, who served as a director and assistant director in foreign language and computer courses and as a teacher in security training centers, also worked as a columnist in the local press and as a radio and television programmer. Married with two children, Gündem has been producing pyrography for nearly twenty years.