Does one need OOP concept to understand / master MVC?

I think you do.  I am not sure if it is because MVC is intrinsically object-oriented, or just because every implementation I've seen is OO.

As you have asked this question in PHP section I will answer with PHP's prospective. Short answer YES. You need to learn OOP properly before diving into MVC although it is not necessary, you can get away with basic oo knowledge but then remember most of the time you will be memorizing framework's way that I do not believe is a good thing. I learnt it in weird way, First after learning PHP and Basic OO I started learning a framework then again stuck and back to basics. Trust me after returning back to core I started to realize that now I can build my own MVC framework rather than using someone's other. Did I build my own MVC framework ? YES. Do I use it? NO because people have already spent a lot of time perfecting the framework that you do not need to build your own but I built it as it improved my own MVC understanding. Takeaway: Today I can learn any MVC framework in half the time I would have done without proper OO knowledge. Suggestion: Try to build basic CRUD app with Object Oriented PHP , if you could do that you can learn any framework then and on top of that you can learn advance OO concepts while learning framework as some of them have very good implementation of OO PHP.