A graduate of Hobart College, Geneva, New York, Dr. Friedman earned a Ph.D. in anatomy from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, and a doctor of medicine from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Va. He completed a general surgery residency at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, Arizona, and a plastic surgery residency at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center, Charlottesville, Virginia. 

Dr. Friedman is involved in research on implantable materials and soft tissue interactions and has published extensively in the plastic surgery literature. He has served as President of the South Carolina Plastic Surgery Society and is on the Executive Board of the Southeastern Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the American Medical Association, the Columbia Medical Society, and serves as an Associate Editor of the Annals of Plastic Surgery.