Stephan von Huene studied painting, drawing and design at the Chouinard Art Institute (Bachelor of Arts), as well as art and art history at the University of California, Los Angeles (Master of Arts). His first abstract expressionist paintings and collages were created in the early 1960s; concurrently he made a series of predominantly figurative pen and pencil drawings. He practiced drawing throughout his life and it formed an essential component of his work. He regarded drawing as an equally playful and purposeful form of searching, an activity that aided introspection and furthered the creative process, it helped him find ideas and manifest them in his work. The onomatopoeic as phenomenon can be observed in his early paintings and drawings.

Inspired by surrealism, he created sculptures made of wood, leather and other materials in the 1960s. From 1964-1970, Stephan von Huene designed his first sound sculptures which were based on his study of acoustic musical instruments, mechanical pianos (player pianos), jukeboxes and organs and optoelectronic programs (punch tape). He used the development of electronic programs for later works that examined communication theory and its application to artistic works played.

From his years as a student onwards, von Huene was a dedicated teacher. Mira Schor, Olav Westphalen and Thomas Zitzwitz have been his students. He taught “sculpture” at the California Institute of the Arts from 1971-1980, and taught basic classes in drawing in Europe. In Karlsruhe, from 1992-1997, he built the “Low Fidelity Studio” at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in the department of media arts. Stephan von Huene received a scholarship from the DAAD in Berlin in 1977-1978. In 1980, he moved his studio from Los Angeles to Hamburg. He was a fellow in the Scholars Program at the Getty Research Institute in Santa Monica in 1991, and in 1997 a fellow at the Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades.