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I have a 3.5 sorcerer/rogue kobold who was taken from his tribe by an evil wizard who needed a minion, and Krik'ik't'kik was a rather industrious and obsequious little fellow who was only too happy to work for the guy because the wizard recognized that the kobold was smart, hardworking, and magically talented. The wizard actually treated him like he was a trusted underling, and Krik'ik't'kik learned the value of respect. And of power, as well.

Later on, when the wizard got gakked by a party of adventurers while fighting in a war, the kobold decided that adventurers were plenty powerful and got lots of respect. And so he became an adventurer - he dressed like a human, tried his best to be well-spoken, polite (or his somewhat misguided idea of polite, anyway), and would go into a foaming-at-the-mouth frenzy if he thought he was somehow being disrespected. Despite having no real moral understanding of just why people were supposed to behave the "right" way, he did his best to follow the same social and ethical rules as everyone else.

Although there are some comical elements to him - he says his name means "Heart of Dragons" in Draconic but the literal translation is "Wyrm Guts", and he often acts a bit like the little dog from the Bugs Bunny cartoons, the one that's always trying to get that other dog Spike to pay attention to him, when he's trying to impress the rest of the party - those comic elements mostly come about because I play him completely straight and seriously. He's a Lawful Evil character in a mostly Lawful Good party, and tries his best to fit in with them and earn their respect - thus, most of the occasional comic elements come from his attempts to follow moral codes he has no real understanding of. However, most of the best role-playing moments also come from his attempts to understand why the "right" thing to do is the right thing to do.
As an example, he understands that charity is a good thing - that if you have more than you need, then you should share with others who don't - and he remembers being on the "don't" side of that equation, but really doesn't see why he shouldn't rob some rich person and distribute their wealth to others, since they are after all being extremely rude not to share, right?
He's a great tool for me to use in exploring the deeper "why" behind humanity's need for order and social/moral/ethical rules - to be able to ponder things from the perspective of someone looking at them from the outside with no preconceptions.


For your character, he sees being an adventurer as his way to rise above being just another "scaly rat" - to being respected rather than abused and hunted. Whether he's doing it just for the power and respect or is actually trying to be a hero (and possibly help out his tribe) will depend on his alignment/class, but if you make sure that he takes respect very seriously, it won't come off as being comical.
For instance, he should be very defferential and respectful to those in authority, but without kowtowing or blatantly sucking up. And he wouldn't start a fight with someone just because they insulted him for being a kobold - after all, if men insult him for being weak or stupid simply because he's a kobold, then they've just proven themselves to be lesser men than he is, and not even worth his disdain.

As for backstory, it may be that his tribe was rescued by adventurers from some natural disaster or something, and he left with the party to train under one of them, or was coverted to the faith of that party's cleric/paladin/avenger/etc. He may be trying to earn the right to take a mate in his tribe, or to establish a tribe of his own.
Perhaps he has goals beyond just being individually respected. Perhaps he's attempting to be an example to both humans and kobolds that they need not try to kill each other and can co-exist.

In any event, the key to playing a kobold so that they don't appear comical is to play them as a character and individual first, and as a "Kobold" second.