Helg was born in Utumapu in 1894, the son of Swiss immigrant Johannes Helg and a Samoan mother.[1][2] He was educated at the Marist Brothers School in Apia,[1] and later become president of the Samoan branch of the Marist Old Boys Union.[3] He married Augustina in 1920, with whom he had six children.[1] He worked for O.F. Nelson & Co from 1918 to 1934 and then I.H. Carruthers until 1940.[1] After working as the stores manager for the New Zealand Reparations Estates from 1940 to 1948,[1] he became manager of the Mulifauna Trading Company.[4]
Following the creation of the Legislative Assembly in 1948, he contested the European seats in the first elections as a member of the United Citizens Party, and was elected in second place.[5] He was re-elected in 1951 (in fifth place), and in 1953 was part of the Western Samoan delegation to New Zealand for the visit of the new Queen Elizabeth II.[6] He lost his seat in the 1954 elections, when he was placed sixth.[7]