He studied history and philology in Kiev and at the Moscow State University, traveled and worked in Austria and Italy between 1865 and 1871.

Drinov achieved a master's degree and became a reader of Slavistics at Kharkiv University, beginning to work as a regular professor at the end of 1876.

During the period of Russian government of Bulgaria (1878 - 1879) Drinov was Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Spiritual Affairs.

Taking an active part in the organization of the newly liberated Bulgarian state, Marin Drinov is known as one of the authors of the Tarnovo Constitution, the person to have proposed Sofia instead of Tarnovo (favored by Austrian diplomats) for the new Bulgarian capital and the person to have introduced the standardized 32-letter edition of Cyrillic that was used in Bulgaria until the orthographic reform of 1945.

[6] The first orthography of the standard Bulgarian language, established with a decree of the Minister of Education Todor Ivanchov in 1899, is attributed to Drinov.