Elaine Sassoon was born in London and partly educated in Paris before going to Harvard University, USA. She returned to England to undertake her medical studies at University College Hospital, London. She continued her general surgical training at a number of teaching hospitals in the south of England and became a fellow of both the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1989.

She started her plastic surgery training in Oxford in 1989 and rotated through teaching hospitals in London, Birmingham, Cambridge and Norwich. She passed the Plastic Surgery Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1998 and became accredited in Plastic Surgery the same year.

She has spent overseas attachments in South Africa; France; Bosnia; Taiwan (perforator flap microsurgery); New Orleans, USA (perforator flap microsurgery) as well as overseas fellowships in Ljubljana, Slovenia (microsurgery) and Atlanta, USA (oculoplastic and aesthetic surgery).

She has run several regional, national and international courses in Plastic Surgery.