Artist is non-starter in game (7)
I believe the answer is:
hockney
'artist' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'non-starter in game' is the wordplay.
'non starter' becomes 'n' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'game' becomes 'hockey' (hockey game is a kind of game).
'n' put inside 'hockey' is 'HOCKNEY'.
'is' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hockney that I've seen before include "Artist, originally from Bradford" , "Member of 7 [ORDER OF MERIT]" , "English artist" , "David --, painter" .)