Clarke grew up in the small town of Booleroo Centre in the southern Flinders Ranges region of South Australia.

He was recruited from the Booleroo Centre/Melrose/Wilmington (BMW) Lions in the Northern Areas Football Association (NAFA) with the 4th selection in the 2012 Rookie draft.

Since his retirement, Clarke has been involved as an ambassador for the Queensland Brain Institute, and has worked as an assistant coach at QAFL team Western Magpies.

Clarke grew up on his family's farm just outside of Booleroo Centre, located in the southern Flinders Ranges region of South Australia.

His performance for North Adelaide attracted scouts from a number of clubs to the Northern Areas Football Association (NAFA) semi-final, in which Clarke and BMW faced Crystal Brook.

His impressed his coaches enough to be able to secure a consistent spot in the backline of the reserves team, playing the most NEAFL games of any Lion that year.

[4] The Lions made the grand final, in which Clarke was tasked with marking Eastern Conference Team of the Year full forward James Kavanagh.

He held his place in the senior team until he was suspended for charging Essendon's Elliot Kavanagh, with Clarke arriving late to a marking contest.

[10] Clarke cited this game, and the final passage of play, as a standout memory in his AFL career in a "Message to Fans" upon his retirement.

[12] Assistant coach at the Lions, Murray Davis, named Clarke as the standout performer of the developing Brisbane defence.

[19] Riewoldt scored two goals, while Clarke provided multiple defensive spoils and intercept marks, again obtaining the most one percenters of any player on the ground.

[19] Clarke continued to garner consistent selections in the Lions senior team, playing all but two games in 2015, missing rounds 20 and 21 as a result of a jaw injury.

[29] Clarke continued to suffer severe concussion symptoms, with the footballer having "lost all memory of the incident and the succeeding three weeks, as he was all but confined to his house".

[28][30] Symptoms persisted for months, with Clarke citing an incident where he found himself lost on his route to university as the most confronting, stating "I didn't know how to get there, and that scared me a lot".

[28] News broke on 16 February that Clarke had been ruled out of AFL inclusion indefinitely,[29] with rumours of his forced retirement circulating a month later.

[31] On 31 March 2016, Clarke officially announced his retirement at the age of 22, concluding his AFL career with 56 games for the Brisbane Lions.

[28] Three separate specialists all gave recommendations for Clarke to permanently retire from all contact sport, citing a greatly increased susceptibility to any further head knocks.

[36] He later joined QAFL team Western Magpies as an assistant coach, where he primarily focused on developing key position players in their knowledge of the game.