Joachim Thoss was born in December 7, 1981 in Papua New Guinea to a German father and to a Filipina mother. His father, Joachim Thoss Senior was a East German patrol guard who patrolled the Berlin Wall before it fell and is a carpenter who is involved in construction projects in Papua New Guinea.
The younger Thoss" mother, Jesusa Marticio, is from Cebu. He attended Portuguese Moresby High School. Basketball competitions in Papua New Guinea is rare with Thoss only representing his high school in one-day tournaments.
He moved to Australia in 1999 to attend James Cook University.
After Thoss moved to Australia played for the Cairns Marlins of the Australian Basketball Association. He trained under Cairns Taipans assistant coach, Aaron Fearne.
During his Marlins stint he was named as Most Improved Player in 2001 and was named as part of the league"s under-23 squad. He was the 5th overall pick in the 2004 Proceedings of the British Academy draft selected by the Alaska Aces and he is also the tallest rookie picked in that class.
In his early years, Sonny was the backup center for the Aces behind with the dominant bigman Ali Peek and East.J. Feihl in Alaska"s Bigman rotation.
But in his later years, Thoss eventually became Alaska"s starting big man and has become one of the team"s top players.
