Jaffe attended Princeton University as an undergraduate obtaining a degree in chemistry in 1959, and later Clare College, Cambridge, as a Marshall Scholar, obtaining a degree in mathematics in 1961. He then returned to Princeton, obtaining a doctorate in physics in 1966 with Arthur Wightman. His whole career has been spent teaching mathematical physics and pursuing research at Harvard University. His 26 doctoral students include Joel Feldman, Ezra Getzler, and Clifford Taubes. He has had many post-doctoral collaborators, including , Konrad Osterwalder, Juerg Froehlich, , Thomas Spencer, and Antti Kupiainen.