Tullio De Piscopo was born in Naples on February 24, 1946, and grew up in the Porta Capuana district. His father played drums and percussion in the orchestra of the Teatro San Carlo, and his older brother Romeo, also a drummer, worked in groups around Bagnoli. By thirteen Tullio was playing the nightclubs near the NATO base there, which were full of American soldiers, and he went on to play in Neapolitan jazz groups. In 1969 he moved north to Turin, where he became the regular drummer at the Swing Club, and later that year he settled in Milan.

Milan made him a working drummer in every sense. In the early 1970s he joined the group of guitarist Franco Cerri, first as a quartet with guitarist Angelo Arienti and bassist Giorgio Azzolini (the quartet record 6, Dire, 1971), then in a quintet with Nando De Luca, the bassist and arranger Pino Presti and the saxophonist Giorgio Baiocco. With Presti he formed a rhythm section that Italian sources describe as one of the most sought-after in the country through the 1970s, and the two worked together on sessions for singers such as Mina, for arrangers and for dance bands. He also played on the first Italian rock opera, Tito Schipa Jr.'s Orfeo 9 (1973), and on the New Trolls' Atomic System (1973).

The jazz work of those years was substantial. In 1972 he recorded the live set at the Ljubljana jazz festival with pianist Guido Manusardi that was issued as Live Suite (BASF, 1974). At Umbria Jazz in Orvieto in July 1974 he played with Gerry Mulligan, Gianni Basso and Renato Sellani. That year he also played drums and percussion on Astor Piazzolla's Libertango (Carosello) and on Summit, the Piazzolla and Mulligan session, and in 1976 he was the drummer on Gerry Mulligan Meets Enrico Intra, with Enrico Intra, Pino Presti and the soprano saxophonist Giancarlo Barigozzi. Other Italian jazz leaders who used him include the pianist Romano Mussolini (Mirage, 1974, percussion), Enrico Intra again on Paopop (1975, percussion), the trumpeter Oscar Valdambrini and trombonist Dino Piana (Afrodite, 1977) and Piana with the American trombonist Kai Winding (Duo "Bones", 1979).

His own records began with Suonando la batteria moderna (Vedette, 1974), a drum-method LP of rhythm exercises that range from samba and rock to swing and Afro-Jazz. Sotto e 'ncoppa (Carosello, 1976), recorded in Milan in October 1975 and credited to the Tullio De Piscopo Revolt Group, was the first real statement: a jazz-rock and fusion record built on Neapolitan themes, with Peter Guidi on soprano saxophone, Giorgio Baiocco on tenor saxophone, flute and vibraphone, and De Piscopo on drums, congas and lead vocals. Vol. 2 followed in 1976. Future Percussion (Carosello, 1978), recorded in Milan in January 1978 by the Tullio De Piscopo Quintet with Larry Nocella on tenor saxophone, pianist Luigi Bonafede, guitarist Giorgio Cocilovo, bassist Lucio Terzano and percussionist Luis Agudo, is his quintet jazz session of the decade. Italian journalists voted him best musician of the year six times running, from 1977 to 1982, and in 1979 he won a Telegatto as best session musician.

The early 1980s tied the jazz and pop sides together. Metamorphosis (Ring, 1981), with keyboardist Oscar Rocchi, was a fusion record; Bluesology (Dire, 1981) paired him with Dado Moroni, the flugelhornist Franco Ambrosetti and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen for a program that includes "All Blues," "A Child Is Born" and the title tune; and he drummed on Pino Daniele's Vai mò (1981) and recorded Acqua e viento (1983) with Daniele, Don Cherry and Famoudou Don Moye. Then came "Stop Bajon (Primavera)," a rap written by Daniele that reached No. 1 in Italy and charted in Germany and the United Kingdom, followed by "Radio Africa" with Mory Kanté (1985). "Andamento lento" won the Festivalbar in 1988, and he appeared at Sanremo with "E allora e allora" (1989) and "Qui gatta ci cova" (1993). Even at the height of that fame he kept jazz musicians around him: Bello carico (EMI, 1988) features bassist Alphonso Johnson and, on selected tracks, the drummers Billy Cobham and Omar Hakim, and in 1987 he toured Europe with Gato Barbieri.

From the 1990s on the jazz records come back to the front. Zzacotturtaic (Fonit Cetra, 1995), with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano and the choir of La Scala, and Pasiòn Mediterranea (1997) were broad crossover projects; Classic in Jazz (with bassist Stefano Cerri and Cesare Poggi) set classical keyboard pieces, among them Scarlatti and Bach, for a jazz trio; and Planet Jazz (Splasc(h), 2001), by the Tullio De Piscopo Italian Jazz Machine with Rosario Bonaccorso on bass and Alessio Menconi on guitar, was a post-bop program of jazz standards. In 2011 he played in the MTM trio with pianist Mike Melillo and Massimo Moriconi, the same pair who join him in saxophonist Massimo Urbani's quartet on Max Leaps In (Philology, 2000), and in the 2010s he recorded Bitter Sweet (Hydra Music, 2013) with clarinetist Buddy DeFranco, followed by a self-issued disc, Double Quartet (2014), that credits DeFranco, pianist Andrea Pozza and bassist Luciano Milanese. In 2021 he formed a jazz trio with bassist Aldo Zunino and Dado Moroni. He received a lifetime-achievement Leone d'oro in Venice in June 2022 and at the 2026 Sanremo festival accompanied the singers LDA and Aka 7even on "Andamento lento." A box set, 80 Tullio (Cimbarecord), followed in April 2026, the year he turned 80.

De Piscopo is the best-known drummer in Italy, and the reputation rests on an unusual combination: the precision of a jazz-trained studio player, the power and showmanship of a soloist (a 1986 television drum contest against Billy Cobham is part of his public story), and a Neapolitan melodic and rhythmic accent that runs through everything from Sotto e 'ncoppa to "Stop Bajon." His own albums are broader than the jazz tag: much of the catalog from 1983 on is pop, dance and Italian song, which is how some reference sites file him (AllMusic lists him under Pop/Rock and International), and that side is part of the story told here. The jazz-side evidence is the rest of the career: a decade in the Milan scene beside Franco Cerri, Gerry Mulligan, Astor Piazzolla and Enrico Intra, leader dates such as Future Percussion, Bluesology and Planet Jazz, and a 2011 stage tribute to Buddy Rich. Apple Music files his artist page under Jazz. He is also a regular partner of Pino Daniele, whose band of Neapolitan players, among them Tony Esposito, James Senese, Rino Zurzolo and Joe Amoruso, fused blues, funk and jazz.