Øystein Bogen has an educational background from The Armed Forces' Russian course, which qualified him to work as an interpreter in a number of official contexts - including for the Police in East Finnmark, later for the Armed Forces. He studied journalism during an exchange year at The University of Georgia in USA, and later Russian, Media Studies and TV production at the University of Bergen. He has a master's degree from the Department of Comparative Politics, and a three-month Security Policy Leadership Course at the Norwegian Defense College.

Bogen was employed as a journalist in TV 2 in 1995. He has worked there ever since, including as a security manager, program manager and foreign reporter. In recent years, Bogen has covered major politics, war and conflicts around the world, primarily in Russia and the other countries of the former Soviet Union.

He has recorded 18 documentaries that have been shown in several countries, among them the award-winning "A Prayer for Beslan"; "Kursk - the tragedy in the Barents Sea"; "The Letter from the Deep" and "The Battle of Attica Square". Bogen has also written several books, including «Putin og jeg – Russlands vei fra håp til håpløshet», «Russlands hemmelige krig mot Vesten» and «En uvanlig spion - Frode Berg, norsk etterretning og spøkelsene fra den kalde krigen».