Oleksandr Makhov was born on 17 April 1986 in Luhansk.

He graduated from the Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University with a degree in journalism. He worked for Luhansk Regional Television, the city's IRTA channel, and as a correspondent for Ukraina, Ukraina 24, and Dom TV channels (2021-2022). He covered events from the war zone and hosted the Viyskkor podcast. In 2017, he was on a business trip to Antarctica.

In 2015, he was voluntarily mobilised and served as an anti-aircraft gunner and machine gunner in the 57th Separate Motorised Infantry Brigade. He took part in the fighting near Horlivka - in Zaitseve and Mayorsk.

From 20 February to 5 March 2020, he was the only representative of the Ukrainian media in the observation centre in Novi Sanzhary, Poltava region, together with the evacuees from Wuhan, China.

With the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he went back to the front as part of the 95th separate airborne assault brigade. He died on 4 May 2022 during the defence of the village Dovhenke, Kharkiv region, as a result of artillery shelling by the Russian invaders.

He was buried on 9 May, 2022 at the Berkovets Cemetery.

The son and the fiancée Anastasiia Blyshchyk are left.