Ebtehaj was born in Rasht on 29 November 1899.His father was a customs official. At age 11 he was sent to the Lycée Montaigne in Paris. Then he continued his studies at the Syrian Protestant College, today American University, in Beirut.Ebtehaj started his career at the Imperial Bank of homeland in 1920. He became a government inspector for the Agricultural Bank in 1936 and also, worked as an inspector for the state-owned enterprises.