He captained Warren Gatland’s side as they finished fifth in the 2023 Guinness Six Nations but will miss the tournament in France.
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Cardiff Rugby’s Will Davies-King and Josh Macleod have both been released from the squad due to foot injuries.
Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric, and Rhys Webb have all retired from international rugby ahead of the start of the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
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Gatland said: “Unfortunately we’re having to release Ken, Josh and Will due to injury which is really disappointing, but all three are hoping to be available later in the year should we need an injury replacement at any point.
“Ken has a niggle in his back which he needs some time out to sort. Josh got the injury on club duty – we were hoping to be able to manage it but specialist assessment showed that wasn’t possible.
“Will picked up the foot injury in training with us which we were managing but then he got re-injured so has been released.
“We’re looking forward to getting the group back together for a few days further training in Wales before we head to Switzerland.
“Owen Williams and Alex Cuthbert won’t travel to Switzerland for personal reasons but we are looking them to attend our training camp in Turkey.
“Taulupe Faletau will travel out to Switzerland for the second week of the training camp as he’s managing a bit of a calf injury and so he can help out at home with his young family following the recent birth of his third child.”
Sam Parry has been added to Warren Gatland’s World Cup training squad in place of Owens.
Gatland has also released Rhys Carre after he failed to meet unspecified performance targets.
Gatland insists his training squad has impressed him with their hard work.
“The group has worked really hard and there have been a few curve balls from us in terms of testing them mentally and physically as people may have seen in some of our videos.
“We’ve done a lot of good preparation already here in Wales and we are heading to Fiesch where we are looking to get the benefits of sleeping at altitude and will kick our training up another gear.”