Major General Macko was born on 5 October 1964 in Kaplice, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). He assumed the command of the Joint Force Training Centre in Bydgoszcz, Poland, on 29 April 2011.

He started his military service in 1983. From 1983 to 1988 he studied at the Military Academy in Brno. He was commissioned during the course of his studies and upon graduation, he received a Master of Science Degrees in Electrical Engineering for Armament Systems - Optics and Electronics and Automated Command and Control Systems. He started his command career as a platoon commander with a maintenance company and from 1988 ­to 1990 served as an Officer of Ammunitions in the 51st Mech Infantry Regiment. Till the end of 1992, he served as a Scientific Aspirant/ Instructor for the Weapons System Department at the Military Academy in Brno. From 1993 to 1994, General Macko served as a Senior Leading Officer – Specialist in the Department of Informatics of the Ministry of Defense. From 1994 to 1996 he was assigned a Senior Leading Officer – Specialist in the Department of Procurement and Sales and from 1996 to 2000 as a Chief of Department for Procurement and Sales in the Acquisition Office of the Ministry of Defense.

From 2000 to 2001 General Macko served as a Deputy Director of the Acquisition Office in the Ministry of Defence. After his studies at the National Defense University in Washington D.C., from 2001 to 2002, he served as a Deputy Director of the Main Logistics Office in Trenčín. From August 2002, he served as a Deputy Commander and subsequently commanded the Logistics Command in Trenčín. In June 2004, he was promoted to Brigadier General. Between July 2004 and July 2008, he served as a Deputy Chief of Staff for Support at ALCC HQ Heidelberg, Germany. During his tenure of DCOS SPT the JFC Brunssum assigned him to lead the team for implementation of the new NATO logistic concept for NRF operations and was assigned Commander duties of the first ever NATO Joint Logistic Support Group (JLSG) for NRF 7 and 8. General Macko was deployed by ALCC HQ into Afghanistan and served as the Chief of Operations (Chief CJ3) in ISAF HQ Kabul from August 2007 to February 2008. From Aug 2008 to Sep 2010, he served as a Deputy Commander of the Slovak Land Forces Command. From July to December 2009, he was in stand-by for deployment as a designated Deputy Operations Commander for the EU Battlegroup Operations (DCOM OHQ EU).

From October 2010 to April 2011, General Macko served as the Chief of Staff for Operations (DCOS OPS) at the Slovak General Staff. His military and professional education includes a number of specialized courses in addition to the Military Academy, such as the Senior Acquisition Course (ICAF and Defense Acquisition University, USA) and a Foreign Trade Course. He received a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy from the ICAF, NDU United States and a Ph. D. in Military Technology from the Military Academy in Brno, Czech Republic.

Major General Pavel Macko is married to Zlatica, they have two children, a son Martin and a daughter Michaela.