The youngest son of Gastao and Cesalina Gracie's eight children, Helio was a very physically frail child. He was sent to live with some aunts and through these family contacts, he found work as a coxman for a popular local rowing team, eventually moving into the team dorms. After a couple of years, when he was about 14, he moved in with his older brothers who lived and taught jiu-jitsu in a house in Botafogo, a borough of Rio de Janeiro. He would spend the next few years limited to only watching his brothers teach, especially Carlos, since doctors had recommended that they keep Helio away from any physical activity. One day when Helio was 16 years old, a student showed up for class and Carlos was not around. Helio, who had memorized all the moves and words of his older brother, offered to start the class. When the class was over, Carlos showed up very apologetic for his delay. The student answered, "No problem. I enjoyed the class with Helio very much and, if you don't mind, I'd like to continue with him." Carlos agreed and Helio became an instructor. Helio soon realized that some of the techniques he had memorized from watching Carlos teach were not very easy for him to execute. He then started to adapt those moves to his frail body's abilities, improving the leverage in the execution of some of those techniques. He dared to break away from the traditional jiu-jitsu his brothers had learned and were teaching, and through trial and error, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was born.

RCJ Machado Jiu-Jitsu, is the ultimate cutting edge fighting art, developed from traditional jiu-jitsu by the Gracie family and than highly refined by The Machado Brothers, into a modern and unique style known most famous for its devastating ground fighting techniques.Increasingly gaining popularity in the United States, Chuck Norris has called Machado Jiu-Jitsu" the style of the '90s."

Includes schools, dojos, and gyms offering training and instructional programs for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.