Struycken was appointed as Minister of Justice in the Drees–Van Schaik cabinet following the resignation of René Wijers, taking office on 10 July 1950.

The Drees III cabinet fell on 11 December 1958 after the Catholic People's Party and the Labour Party (PvdA) disagreed on a proposed tax increase and continued to serve in a demissionary capacity until it was replaced by caretaker Beel II cabinet, with Struycken continuing as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, Property and Public Sector Organisations and also taking over as Minister of Justice, taking office on 22 December 1958.

Antoon Arnold Marie Struycken was born on 27 December 1906 in Breda in the province of North Brabant in a Roman Catholic family.

Struycken was interred in Kamp Sint-Michielsgestel prison camp during World War II.

After the war he was briefly Minister of Justice, in which capacity he commuted the death sentences of "The Breda Four" (Franz Fischer (SS) [nl], Ferdinand aus der Fünten, Joseph Kotalla, and Willy Lages) to life imprisonment.