Meyer studied medicine and received his Ph.D. from the University of Cologne in 1924.
He moved to Berlin and received a Ph.D. in chemistry from the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in 1927.
In 1930 Herbert Evans invited Meyer to work as assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
He then moved to New York and worked at the Columbia University doing research on hyaluronan.
A resident of Teaneck, New Jersey, Meyer died at the age of 90 on May 18, 1990, at a nursing home in nearby Cresskill.