Happened to live in a corrupt state (8)
I believe the answer is:
befallen
'a corrupt state' is the definition.
The answer and definition are not the same part of speech. However, adjectives and past participle verbs occasionally mean the same thing.
'happened to live' is the wordplay.
'happened' becomes 'fallen' (falling is a kind of happening).
'to' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'live' becomes 'be' (synonyms).
'fallen' after 'be' is 'BEFALLEN'.
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for befallen that I've seen before include "Came to pass" , "(Having) happened to (someone)" .)