Hambourg was born in Paris and though he worked as a lithographer, designer, and decorator, he is best known for his landscape and seaside paintings.
He traveled frequently and made drawings for book collectors in Provence and North Africa, where he lived from 1933-1939. In 1940, he stayed in Casablanca before joining the French Resistance in 1942 in Oran.
He wrote in Algiers under the pseudonym André Hache where he collaborated with various Algerian newspapers and was eventually appointed a war correspondent in January of 1945. He joined the army that same year and in 1952 became the official painter of the Navy, dividing his time between the Normandy coast and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (his favorite subjects), where he built a studio among olive trees in 1972. Hambourg received an award for wartime services from Croix de Guerre and the Cross of a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
The Museum of Trouville has a room devoted to his works.