Growing up in the affluent Cairo suburb of Maadi, Khalil Ibrahim had numerous opportunities to participate in sport and was a high jump champion as a schoolboy. He soon turned to aquatics, however, and, specializing in diving, had his best years in the 1930s. The pinnacle of his career came when he was selected to represented Egypt at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he was 13th in the platform event. He continued competing as a student at Egyptian University (now Cairo University), and was a member of their water polo team as well, but his career was ended by World War II.