Burke was born in 1989 in Free State and is a native speaker of Afrikaans.

[1] He earned two bachelor's degrees in Computer Science and Language Technology from the Potchefstroom campus of North-West University.

[3] He also earned a master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Cape Town,[4] and a PhD from the University of Cambridge on a scholarship from the Mandela Rhodes Foundation.

Burke is the founder of ExpertRand, a company providing money transfer services for expatriate South Africans, and a cofounder of Kastelo, a fintech company.

[5] Burke stood as a DA parliamentary candidate on the Western Cape list in the 2024 national elections and was subsequently elected to the National Assembly of South Africa.