Martin Chrien was born in Banská Bystrica on 8 September 1995 and began his career with his home-town club Dukla, before moving to the Czech Republic with Viktoria Plzeň in 2014. Loan spells at Zbrojovka Brno and Ružomberok followed, and his form as a creative central midfielder earned him a transfer to Benfica in the summer of 2017.

He never broke into Jorge Jesus's or Bruno Lage's first team, spending most of his time with Benfica B and on loan at Santa Clara. He was registered with the club as late as 2019-20 before a loan to Mezőkövesd in Hungary ended his Portuguese chapter.

Since leaving Benfica he has played for Pohronie, a second spell at Ružomberok and Železiarne Podbrezová, and has been capped by Slovakia.