Peixoto graduated with a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of São Paulo in 2003. He earned a PhD in Physics from the same university in 2007, advised by Carmen Pimentel Cintra do Prado with a dissertation entitled "Dynamics of the epicenters of the Olami-Feder-Christensen model of earthquakes (OFC)". In 2017 he obtained his Habilitation in Theoretical Physics at the University of Bremen.