Born in Germany, Magaard attended school in Flensburg from 1944 to 1955 and then studied mathematics and physics at Kiel University. He received the degrees of Diplom in 1961 and Dr. rer. nat. in 1963 at this university. He joined the Institute of Marine Research at Kiel University as research scientist in 1961, as lecturer (German: dozent) from 1969 and as Professor of Oceanography from 1972. He moved to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, USA, in 1975 and has been a Professor of Oceanography there to this date, since 2009 as Emeritus Professor.
