His father, Mark Burgess who died of Motor neurone disease, was also a rugby league footballer who played for Nottingham City, Rochdale Hornets, Dewsbury and Hunslet;[4] while his mother, Julie, is a teacher, currently employed at The Scots College in Bellevue Hill, Sydney.

[6] Burgess attended Castle Hall Academy to receive a secondary education before becoming a professional rugby league footballer.

[8] George represented England against the Australian Schoolboys in 2010 while playing lower grades and training with the full squad of the Bradford Bulls.

On 1 January 2011 George was signed by the South Sydney Rabbitohs to play in the National Youth Competition and NRL in the future.

[18][19] Burgess finished off his solid year with the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the 2014 NRL season with him playing 23 matches and scoring three tries.

On 23 January 2015, Burgess was named in the South Sydney Rabbitohs tournament winning 2015 NRL Auckland Nines squad.

[25] In March 2017, days before the Rabbitohs season opening match against the Wests Tigers, Burgess was dropped from the team and was sent to play for North Sydney Bears in the NSW Cup after he failed to impress coach Michael Maguire in the pre-season trial matches and was outshone by the likes of youngster Zane Musgrove to the starting front-row position.

"[26] In Round 3, Burgess was sent to the sin bin and later suspended for three matches after elbowing Newcastle player Mitch Barnett in the face during South Sydney's 24–18 victory.

[28] After facing the NRL judiciary, Burgess copped a four-match suspension which eventually rubbed him out to play for England in their test match against Samoa.

[29][30] In Round 15 against the Gold Coast Titans, Burgess played his 100th NRL career match in the Rabbitohs 36–20 win at ANZ Stadium.

On 2 July 2019, Burgess was found guilty of the eye gouge on Farah and received a nine match ban from the NRL judiciary.

[38] Further into 2019, Burgess made his acting debut in the Australian/New Zealand crime thriller Locusts (film) playing a bouncer named Ivan.

In February 2021 the club announced that by mutual consent with Burgess he was being released from his contract and after an operation on his hip scheduled for March 2021 would spend most of the rest of the year undergoing a physical rehabilitation programme.

[45] In round 2 of the 2022 NRL season, Burgess made his club debut for St. George Illawarra in their loss to Penrith at Kogarah Oval.

[46] On 23 March, it was announced that Burgess had been arrested and charged by NSW Police for allegedly touching a woman sexually without their consent.

[47] On 23 July, Burgess announced he was stepping down from playing and planned to enter a rehabilitation facility to deal with gambling and depression.

[61] On 6 November 2018, Burgess was suspended for four matches after being found guilty of eye gouging Dallin Watene-Zelezniak during England's 20–14 victory over New Zealand.