Born on 29 January 1891 in Yekaterinoslav, Ukraine. 

His parents were owners of a shoe store.

A. learned in cheder and studied for four years at the state school.

Already at the age of thirteen he participated in a children’s play. When he was seventeen, Gold and Becker took him into a cooperative troupe in Krivoy Rog, and he performed with the troupe until 1912, the time when he joined the army. During the war A. was captured and became a prisoner-of-war.

Later he met up with the troupe once again, managed this time by Miriam Trilling, and he played with them in Yekaterinoslav until the theatre became nationalized.

With the Yiddish theatre, he performed in Batum, Baku and Constantinople until he arrived in America in 1923. Here he worked in an industrial shop for half a year until Abraham Littman engaged him as actor and stage manager in his theatre in Detroit.

Arko was the nephew of actor Itzhak Arkos.