Kiraly grew up in Santa Barbara, California. He began playing volleyball at age six with encouragement from his father, Dr. Laszlo Kiraly, who had been a member of the Hungarian Junior National team prior to fleeing the country during the Hungarian national uprising of 1956. At age 11, Kiraly entered his first beach volleyball tournament paired with his father. Kiraly attended Santa Barbara High School, where he was a member of the boys' varsity volleyball team.

Kiraly had a long career on the professional beach circuit, and with 148 career wins is the 'winningest' player in the sport's history. He won at least one tournament in 24 of the 28 seasons he played in a career that spanned four decades. He claimed titles with 13 partners, and in domestic events he made it to the semifinals over 80% of the time. Kiraly competed into his mid-40s.  Kiraly played in his first beach tournament at age 11 as his father's partner. Kiraly has said as an 11-year-old he was thrilled to discover in beach volleyball he could compete with grown men on even terms. He earned his A and AA rating on the beach at the age of 15 and his AAA rating at 17. Kiraly's first big beach breakthrough came at Hermosa Beach in 1978. As a 17-year-old who had just graduated from high school, he shocked Hermosa onlookers by gaining the finals before he and partner Marco Ortega lost to the day's dominant team on the beach, Jim Menges and Greg Lee. In the early 1980s, Kiraly made a successful beach team pairing with UCLA teammate Sinjin Smith. The partnership split up as Kiraly came to focus on the U.S National Team.  In 1992 Kiraly left his indoor career behind, returning to the U.S. to play beach volleyball full-time on the AVP tour. Kiraly chose Kent Steffes as his doubles partner. Steffes was a talented younger player who had left UCLA early to start playing on the professional beach tour. Kiraly and Steffes soon became the dominant pairing on the tour, supplanting former teammate and doubles partner Smith and his partner Randy Stoklos as the beach's top team. In 1996 Kiraly returned to the Olympics, this time competing in beach volleyball with his partner, Steffes. Kiraly and Steffes won the gold medal, the first ever awarded for men's beach volleyball.  Kiraly continued to win tournaments into his 40s, recording two AVP tournament victories with his partner Brent Doble in 2002 and 2003, and four more with Mike Lambert in 2004 and 2005. Kiraly's last victory came in August 2005, when he and Lambert won at Huntington Beach. In 2006, Kiraly partnered with Larry Witt, and in 2007 partnered with Kevin Wong. His teams continued to make high placings. Over his career on the beach, Kiraly won over $3 million in prize money, and earned considerably more in endorsements. Kiraly retired from the AVP tour after the 2007 season.  Ultimately Kiraly won 148 professional beach volleyball titles, 74 of them with Steffes. The next closest player in total wins is Sinjin Smith at 139. Following Smith is his longtime partner, Randy Stoklos, at 122. The next closest player behind these four from the top two teams is Emanuel Rego, with 78 wins.

Where did he start playing
Kiraly's first big beach breakthrough came at Hermosa Beach