He came from a very old Czech theatrical family of Steimar and artistic family of Kodet, he was the son of Czech actress Jiřina Steimar and sculptor Jan Kodet. After her parents divorced, her mother married Jaroslav Juhan, a car racer, but he emigrated. This had an impact on the further studies of Jiří Kodet, who was expelled from the grammar school and was not admitted to the DAMU until the second time. He left the DAMU before graduating and began his theatre career at the East Bohemian Theatre in Pardubice (1961-1962). In 1962-64 he was in the Artistic Military Ensemble, based in Pohořelec, Prague. With this ensemble he toured a large part of the former Czechoslovakia. His future colleagues from the Drama Club, Jiří Hrzán, Jiří Zahajský and Petr Skoumal, were in the ensemble with him. In Pardubice, he was sought out by Jan Kačer, who was assembling a troupe for the Petr Bezruč Theatre…
