Why not purchase a physical coin like Satori chip or any trusted coin out there then gift it to your friend. That way you didn't know the private key or recovery seed of the wallet you are gonna gift to your friend. Your friend will appreciate a physical gift rather than a pure Bitcoin currency since he is not familiar on it and newbie always want things that they want to see to appreciate it.

I have a lot of friends including my coworkers that I gift satori chip before and they appreciate more rather than sending them Bitcoin because they are too paranoid on the money that they will gonna receive.