[6] Haugen was born in Sioux City, Iowa, to Norwegian immigrants from Oppdal Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway.

in 1928 and immediately went on to graduate studies in Scandinavian languages under professor George T. Flom at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was awarded the Ph.D. in 1931.

Before his departure, he recruited Norwegian scholar and Hamsun expert Harald Næss to Wisconsin to serve as his successor.

Additionally, the Boston Chapter of the American-Scandinavian Foundation voted to establish the Einar and Eva Haugen Prize.

The prize is awarded annually to an undergraduate or graduate student for excellence in the field of Scandinavian languages and literature at Harvard University.