[3] Helén was the son of the supervising teacher Gustaf Helén and Ingeborg Andersson and married in 1938 to the assistant professor Ingrid Rying, daughter of the head teacher Karl-Johan Rying and Märta Eriksson.

Like his son Gunnar, his father Gustaf Helén was a liberal, while his father-in-law Karl-Johan Rying was an active Social Democrat.

After graduating in Örebro, Gunnar Helén studied at Uppsala University, where in 1946 he became a doctor of philosophy in Nordic languages on a dissertation on Birger Sjöberg.

As a journalist, he worked at Radiotjänst, where he did a famous report from Kungsgatan, Stockholm on Friday, May 7, 1945, but also in 1939 announced that the Second World War had broken out with England and France declaring war on Germany on September 3.

Helen also did the first youth program on radio We open a window in 1944, including a report from Högbacka dance floor.