After finishing school he worked in banks in New South Wales, but then won a theological scholarship to St Paul's College, University of Sydney, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1915.

[2] Elkin became interested in Australian Aboriginal culture and although no anthropology was taught in Australia at the time, his master's thesis—which he completed successfully in 1922—was on this subject and he lectured on it at St John's.

In 1925, Elkin resigned from his post at Wollombi and began studying anthropology at University College, London under Grafton Elliot Smith, where he earned a PhD in 1927.

In 1927 the anthropologist Alfred Radcliffe-Brown helped Elkin to gain Rockefeller funding in order to work on Australian culture in the Kimberley, Western Australia.

In 1938 he played a key role in the drafting of the New Deal for Aborigines, a landmark policy statement announced by interior minister John McEwen on whom he was an influential advisor.

Until his retirement in 1956, he effectively dominated Australian anthropology, advised governments, trained administrators sent to Papua New Guinea, while also continuing his field research.