Born in Béni-Saf, near Oran, Algeria, of Spanish ancestry, from an unknown father. Like many other settlers in the Oran region of French colonial Algeria, his early years were marked by poverty, military service and bad health. After the war he became a radio broadcaster and began publishing poetry in Algiers magazines. Besides his poems and writings, he was renowned for a long-running relationship and correspondences with Albert Camus.

In 1954, the homosexual poet "who signed with a sun", published his first collection, Poèmes, in Paris thanks to the help of Albert Camus. The same year marked the beginning of an 8-year Algerian was of independence, which Sénac spent in France.

He resolutely took the side of the Algerians against supporters of Algérie française. In 1962 he returned to independent Algeria, where he again found work with the radio, continued composing his own poetry and published anhologies of French-language Algerian writers.

His increasingly strident criticism of the Algerian regime, combined with his open homosexual poetry and life, brought him into conflict with authorities. He was killed in Algiers, though interpretations differ as to wether or not he was assassinated for political reasons.