Institut des hautes études cinématographiques
Balogun was born in 1945 in Aba, Nigeria, to Yoruba parents. His father practised law in Aba until his death when Balogun was 12. The first language Balogun learned to speak was Igbo. He attended Christ the King School, Aba, from 1951 to 1957, then went to King's College, Lagos. He studied at the University of Dakar from 1962 to 1963, at the University of Caen in France (1963–66), and at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (from 1966 to 1968), where Christopher Miles was a fellow student.