Callen made his first-class debut for Victoria in 1976-77. In his fourth Sheffield Shield match he took 4 for 55 and 5 for 15 in an innings victory for Victoria over South Australia, and in the next match he took 1 for 82 and 8 for 42 in a 10-wicket victory over Queensland.

His only Test came against India in Adelaide in 1978 in which he took 6 wickets, helping bowl Australia to a series-winning victory. He toured the West Indies in 1977-78. He played in the first ODI, taking 1-42. In the second he took 3-24. During the tour he fractured a vertebra in his lower back. In 1982 he returned to international cricket in Pakistan with the Australian side. He played in three ODIs, taking 1-32, 0-50 and not bowling in the third.^[6] He never fully recovered from the lower back injury.

Callen established Ian Callen Sports in 1981. He sold it in 1985 to concentrate on making a range of three bats, the MX, the K-IX and the Aussie Boomah.^[7] His company in the Yarra Valley, Callen Cricket, has re-established the growing of cricket-bat willow from stock sent to Australia by English Test captain A. C. MacLaren in 1902. He harvests and processes the timber from his plantations at Healesville and Sale. The timber is used for the manufacture of cricket bats and picture frame mouldings.

He conducts courses teaching the craft of making cricket bats by hand. At first he used willow imported from England, but now he uses his own.^[8]

• List of Victoria first-class cricketers