diff --git a/distiller/apputils/checkpoint.py b/distiller/apputils/checkpoint.py
index 2757cd83e64e97eaba51c1067e1500edc4a6edaf..95cda268b8fa6e45b20523629bfbc5d9e2d85890 100755
--- a/distiller/apputils/checkpoint.py
+++ b/distiller/apputils/checkpoint.py
@@ -182,6 +182,7 @@ def load_checkpoint(model, chkpt_file, optimizer=None,
             # One of the values is missing so we can't perform the comparison
             pass
 
+    chkpt_file = os.path.expanduser(chkpt_file)
     if not os.path.isfile(chkpt_file):
         raise IOError(ENOENT, 'Could not find a checkpoint file at', chkpt_file)
     assert optimizer == None, "argument optimizer is deprecated and must be set to None"