Breen was born at St Arnaud in the Wimmera district of the state of Victoria on 22 January 1935.
[1] He received his secondary education at St Patrick's College, Ballarat (1948–1952), where he matriculated as Dux in his final year.
[3] He was thinking of somewhere to take a holiday break and a job when, in 1967, he chanced to listen to a public lecture at his university in which the need to record dying languages was mentioned.
[5] Breen's work, which has extended over many distinct language groups in western and central Queensland, the Northern Territory, and South Australia, was mostly done under the auspices of the AIATSIS, of which he was a member.
[2] Although Breen officially retired in 2001, he continued to work at the Institute for Aboriginal Development in Alice Springs and was still there as of January 2016[update].