Wyden was born Peter Weidenreich, in Berlin to a Jewish family.^[1] His mother, Helen (née Silberstein), was a concert singer, and his father, Erich Weidenreich, was a businessman. Franz Weidenreich, German anatomist and physical anthropologist, was one of his uncles.

Wyden attended the Goldschmidt School until he left Nazi Germany for the United States in 1937.^[2][3] After studying at City College of New York,^[1] he served with the U.S. Army's Psychological Warfare Division in Europe during World War II.^[4] His training at Camp Ritchie places him among the ranks of the Ritchie Boys, a group of Military Intelligence Officers who used their language skills to obtain intel in Europe. In 2021, Peter's son Ron Wyden, a U.S. Senator, was instrumental in creating a senate resolution recognizing the Ritchie Boys for their efforts.

After the war, Wyden began a career in journalism, during which he worked as a reporter for The Wichita Eagle, a feature writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Washington correspondent for Newsweek magazine, a contributing editor for The Saturday Evening Post in Chicago and San Francisco, articles editor for McCall's, and executive editor for Ladies' Home Journal.^[1][4]

Wyden authored or coauthored nine books, and numerous articles that appeared in major magazines.^[4] In 1969, he co-authored with his wife a book on homosexuality entitled Growing Up Straight; the book summed up research on the topic, which suggested homosexuality could be prevented with a close paternal relationship in childhood.^[5] His last book, published in 1998, was about schizophrenia; it was based on his personal experience as his son Jeff suffered from the mental disorder.^[1]

In 1970, Wyden became a book publisher in New York City and Ridgefield, Connecticut.^[4]

Wyden was married three times.^[1] He had two sons, including Ron Wyden, who became a United States senator.^[6] He died on June 27, 1998, in Danbury, Connecticut.^[1]

• Suburbia's Coddled Kids. 1962. New Jersey: Doubleday & Company, Inc.
• The Overweight Society. 1965. New York: Pocket Books.
• Wyden, Peter; Wyden, Barbara (1969). Growing Up Straight: What Every Thoughtful Parent Should Know about Homosexuality. New York: Stein and Day. OCLC 976970206.
• Bay of Pigs – The Untold Story. 1979. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-24006-4 ISBN 0224017543 ISBN 978-0-671-24006-6
• The Passionate War: The Narrative History of the Spanish Civil War. 1983. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1983 ISBN 0-671-25330-1
• Day One: Before Hiroshima and After. 1985. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1984 ISBN 0-671-46142-7
• Stella: One Woman's True Tale of Evil, Betrayal, and Survival in Hitler's Germany. Anchor Books, 1993. ISBN 978-0385471794
• Wall: The Inside Story of Divided Berlin. 1989. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-55510-3
• Wyden, Peter H. (1998). Conquering Schizophrenia: A Father, His Son and a Medical Breakthrough. New York: Knopf. ISBN 9780679446712. OCLC 37560191.