In 1916, Goffin completed his humanities study at the Athenaeum of Saint-Gilles where he was a classmate of the future artist Paul Delvaux.

[1] He was active in denouncing the Nazi Germany in Belgium and predicted the German invasion twelve months in advance,[4] creating in 1939 the magazine Alert, which argued for the abandonment of the Belgian neutrality for an alliance with France.

He left Belgium for the United States at the outset during World War II, supporting himself through lectures and writing, including essays such as Jazz: from the Congo to the Metropolitan,[5] and novels set in German-occupied Belgium, including La colombe de la Gestapo (lit.

'The Dove of the Gestapo') and The White Brigade (published in French as Passeports pour l'Audelà).

In 1942, he collaborated with Leonard Feather to teach what is considered the first course ever on jazz history and analysis, held at the New School for Social Research in New York City.