Ken Taylor's early life was overshadowed by the Depression of the 1930s and the Second World War of the 1940s although he has recalled happy childhood visits to his grandparents at Lorne. In the late 1940s he worked as a shipping roundsman for an Invercargill (New Zealand) morning newspaper. Two years in Europe followed and then work with the Melbourne Sun and farming near Mackay. Back in Ballarat he tried teaching before becoming a 'talks officer' with the ABC in Melbourne.

Taylor was awarded a Harkness Fellowship to study at Yale University in the United States (1965) and Cornell University (1966). At Cornell, AR Ammons, the poet-in-residence, fostered Taylor's interest in writing poetry about his own places and memories. In the late 1960s he was among the poets who established La Mama Writers' Workshops in Melbourne. He was associating with a number of poets, including Kris Hemensley, Robert Kenny and Charles Buckmaster.

Taylor has also produced several radio documentaries, including A Century at the MCG and radio series such as Melbourne on My Mind (published by the ABC in 1976). He has made films for television including Wild Australia. Involvement in the Summer School at the University of New England in the early 1960s fostered an interest in adult education, which later found an outlet in membership of the Council of Adult Education (Victoria), in the 1990s.