He served as a deputy representative to the Norwegian Parliament from Akershus during the term 1961–1965. He was a deputy member of Oslo city council in 1971–1975. He was the chairman of the Centre Party from 1973 to 1977.
Vårvik graduated with a cand.oecon. degree in 1951. He worked in the newspaper Nationen from 1961 to 1991, as a journalist except for the period 1963 to 1988 when he was editor-in-chief.