After completing vocation training at Bosch and military services at Field Marshal Rommel Barracks, Augustdorf, he studied economics at the University of Hohenheim.

Early in his career, Brinkhaus worked at Deloitte in Hannover; Babcock Borsig in Oberhausen; as well as at Medion in Essen and Mülheim.

From 2016 to 2021, Brinkhaus also served as the deputy head of the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, under the leadership of chairman Armin Laschet.

[4] In the negotiations to form a coalition government under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2017 federal elections, Brinkhaus was also part of the CDU delegation.

[5] Brinkhaus was elected CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader on 25 September 2018, with 125 votes from the parliamentary group members against incumbent Volker Kauder's 112 votes;[6][7][8] at the time, the chairs of both CDU and CSU, Angela Merkel and Horst Seehofer, as well as Armin Laschet had already endorsed Kauder.