I've just tried it on my Windows 8 Pro install on my laptop. It works fine, you cannot make the live tile 2-wide, but it is "Live" and the live feature is just the profile picture updating.
I'm guessing this would be the same on the surface, and to accomplish this do the following...
Start [Metro] > People > [Your friend](Left Click)
This will take you to the full page of the person you're after placing a live tile on, once you've done this just right click anywhere on the screen to bring up the options and click "Pin to start".