Yıldırım Öcek was born on June 16, 1952 in Istanbul. His full name is Ahmet Yıldırım Öcek. After graduating from high school, he did not continue his education. He worked as a civil servant and worked as a comedian in wedding halls and bars. He first stepped into television with Atilla Arcan and Yalçın Menteş. He started his stage career at the age of 11 at a wedding at Harbiye Orduevi. He performed stand up comedy with harmonium and accordion. He received theater education from Public Education. In 1975, his first theater play was Necati Cumalı's play "Nalınlar". He did his first professional play at the Nejat Uygur theater. He learned acting from him. He mostly played the roles of rich men and bosses. In 2011, he went on tours with the theater play 'Kim Öle Kim Kala' with a troupe he founded with his friends.

Between 2004 and 2009, he played the character of magazine boss Sadettin Yerebakan in the series "Avrupa Yakası" written by Gülse Birsel and directed by Jale Atabey, He played with Gülse Birsel, Engin Günaydın, Levent Üzümcü, Şenay Gürler, Bülent Polat, Veysel Diker, Yavuz Seçkin, Hale Caneroğlu, Evrim Akın, Vural Çelik, Hasibe Eren, Tolga Çevik, Sarp Apak, Peker Açıkalın, Binnur Kaya, Hakan Yılmaz, Ömür Arpacı, Rutkay Aziz. Yıldırım Öcek played the character of Sarp's father in the series "Zengin Kız Fakir Oğlan" (Rich Girl Poor Boy), which was produced and written by Birol Güven and aired between August 30, 2012 and June 14, 2015. Ufuk Özkan, Ecem Özkaya Üstündağ, Hüseyin Avni Danyal, Ayda Aksel, Mahir İpek, Gözde Okur, Ferdi Akarnur, Kemal Kuruçay starred in this series.

Yıldırım Öcek is married and has two sons, Feridun Öcek and Eser Seçkin Öcek. His older son Feridun Öcek is a Geophysical Engineer. The younger son, Eser Seçkin Öcek graduated from Üsküdar Cumhuriyet High School and a few years after graduating from Üsküdar Cumhuriyet High School, he graduated from Maltepe Unv. Fine Arts Acting Department. In 2014, he starred in the movie "Figüran" with Ceyhun Fersoy, Serenay Aktaş, Ferdi Kurtuldu, Erdal Cindoruk, Cem Kılıç, Umut Oğuz, Mehtap Bayri, Selma Hoşafçı, Veysel Diker, Ümit Yesin.