Egan was born in Windsor, New South Wales and was a foreman at the Government Dockyards, Sydney from 1824 to its closure in 1835. He then went into Business and acquired several trading vessels but went bankrupt in 1843 and later became a wine and spirit merchant. He became an alderman of the Sydney City Council on its creation in 1842, rising to mayor in 1853. He purchased two 40-acre (16 ha) blocks of land in Beacon Hill in 1857.