He received both a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology in 1967 and a PhD in linguistics in 1974 from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

[6] Until 2018, he served as the review editor for Oceanic Linguistics, an academic journal that covers the Austronesian languages.

As part of his field work, Blust studied 97 Austronesian languages spoken in locations such as Sarawak, Papua New Guinea, and Taiwan.

In Taiwan, he performed field work on Formosan languages such as Thao, Kavalan, Pazeh, Amis, Paiwan and Saisiyat.

Blust also had an abiding research interest in both linguistic and cultural aspects of rainbows and dragons.