What do you call someone who has fought his way from a lower social class to a higher social class with his/her own efforts?

Is there a single word (noun) that describes someone who was born into a lower social class family, but struggled along to a higher social class with his/her own efforts? Idioms are also welcome.

For example, I have a friend who is such a person. He has very uneducated parents who also had a lot of financial problems when he was a kid. He grew up with no toys, with clothes from his older siblings, without much of a social environment. His parents just attended primary school before they immigrated to Europe, so his parents also could not guide him and motivate him for education. He was, however, able to graduate from one of the best technical universities without any support of others, including his parents.

I wanted to tell him that he is a ______, but I did not know what word would fit to describe him.

Solution 1:

Self-made man -- Wikipedia

A "self-made man" or "self-made woman" is a person who was born poor or otherwise disadvantaged, but who achieves economic or other success thanks to their own hard work and ingenuity rather than because of any inherited fortune, family connections, or other privileges.

Solution 2:

You could also call this someone who has “pulled himself up by his bootstraps”:

Meaning: Improve your situation by your own efforts.

For example, James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922:

“There were others who had forced their way to the top from the lowest rung by the aid of their bootstraps.”

Kunitz & Haycraft's British Authors of the 19th Century:

“A poet who lifted himself by his own boot-straps from an obscure versifier to the ranks of real poetry.”

Here, the expression is used to describe competency, but I think it can also be used in the sense of improving one's social lot.

Source: phrases.org.uk

Solution 3:

The Romans called this kind of person a Novus homo, literally "new man", when referring to those who achieved Patrician status without inheriting it.

: new man : man newly ennobled : arriviste
_M-W

Solution 4:

In the US, you may call him a Horatio Alger

Horatio Alger
of or characteristic of the heroes in the novels of Horatio Alger, who begin life in poverty and achieve success and wealth through honesty, hard work, and virtuous behavior:

Dictionary.com

Solution 5:

The situation is also informally called rags to riches -- Wikipedia

So, the friend is a rags-to-riches person, or, he went from rags to riches (if he becomes really rich, that is)..

Richness doesn't always have to be about money. Rich in skills, social status, friends, knowledge, etc. can apply.

Rags to riches refers to any situation in which a person rises from poverty to wealth, and in some cases from absolute obscurity to heights of fame—sometimes instantly. This is a common archetype in literature and popular culture (for example, the writings of Horatio Alger, Jr.).

Not necessarily from winning lotteries or getting inheritance. Wikipedia lists a lot of names of famous people who faced many hardships and poverty in their path to success. They didn't win lotteries. It was their hard work and determination, and some good luck.