Academic chief breaks from the Sun (7)
I believe the answer is:
scholar
'academic' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'chief breaks from the sun' is the wordplay.
'chief' becomes 'ch' (I've seen this in other clues).
'breaks' indicates putting letters inside.
'from the sun' becomes 'solar' (I've seen this before).
'ch' inserted inside 'solar' is 'SCHOLAR'.
(Other definitions for scholar that I've seen before include "Noted academic" , "Distinguished academic" , "Pupil - erudite person" , "Person of learning" , "Student or learned person" .)