Born in Graz, Schoeck spent his early years in Baden-Württemberg, finishing high school in Ludwigsburg.
With a dissertation on Karl Mannheim, Schoeck would obtain his doctorate under Eduard Spranger.
In 1953, he taught philosophy at Fairmont State College, followed by a two-year stint at Yale.
In 1965, Schoeck returned to Germany, where he obtained a chair in sociology at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, which he would occupy until his retirement in 1990.
Schoeck, who was also a columnist of the Welt am Sonntag for twenty years, died of cancer in 1993.