He attended the Jesuit boarding school Lycée Saint-François-Xavier in Vannes, France, a school which had previously been attended by the director of Carrière's first major film, Volker Schlöndorff.

In 1969, Carrière moved to Paris to study philosophy with the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and continue his acting.

After playing the young Tonio at the age of 13 in Rolf Thiele's 1964 film Tonio Kröger; he next played a main part in the 1966 German movie Der junge Törless (Young Törless).

Other film roles include major appearances in Andrzej Wajda's Gates to Paradise (1967), Harry Kümel's Malpertius (1971) and Roger Vadim's Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman (1973).

Carrière has performed on film with Orson Welles in Malpertius (1971), Brigitte Bardot in Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman (1973), Romy Schneider in The Sanssouci Walker (1982) and Isabelle Huppert in Malina (1991).