Mattoussi studied physics at the University of Tunis El Manar, which he completed with honours in 1982. He completed his doctoral research at the Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, where he studied mesomorphic polymers in solution. On completing his PhD, Mattoussi was made a research associate at the Collège de France. He moved to the United States in 1987, first joining University of Massachusetts Amherst, then Carnegie Mellon University.
