Born in Gyoma, Határ graduated as an architect at the Technical University of Budapest but soon moved into the field of literature. He was among those responsible for establishing the European School of modern literature in Hungary. His tetralogy Heliáne was published in 1947, followed by Liturgikon in 1948.

Previously imprisoned during the Horthy regime, Határ's work was blacklisted by the Communist censorship and he was sent to jail once again, for two and a half years. His poems written during this period of captivity were smuggled out and circulated in typescript. Freed in 1953, he left Hungary late in 1956 and settled in London, where he worked for the B.B.C. for several decades.

Határ is a feverishly experimental avant-garde poet with a superb command of language as well as mythology, history and philosophy - facets that blend to form a brilliant, eclectic basis for a very private world of ideas and images. His publications are extensive. In addition to volumes of poetry including Gossamer Bridge (Hajszálhíd. 1969), he has written a nmumber of novels and plays.. His three volume autobiography Gyôzô Határ's Life Story [Határ Gyôzô Életútja] was published in Budapest after the collapse of Communism. An octogenarian of eternal youth and vigour, Határ is bound to surprise his readers with further masterpieces.

He received the Kossuth Prize in 1991 and was elected a member of the Széchenyi Academy of Arts and Letters in 1993.