So hypothetically I have a friend who wants to get a job in cyber security but has no formal education or means to afford one, at the moment. He knows enough about computers to navigate and execute most common tasks, and certainly has the drive, common sense, and brains to succeed but can't afford to in this almost cutthroat field...
How would he begin to teach himself?
He has a laptop, Kali Linux, The BTFM and RTFM books, The Hacker's Playbook 3; and the internet.

Make his day with your two cents.

Cyber Security is a lot like reverse engineering, especially when trying to plug holes a hacker might come through. So reverse engineer your problem. Start at the end and work backwards. Have your friend look at a job board for jobs they want. Check the qualifications and certs needed. Google the qualifications, have them get proficient at that. As for certs, the standards are public. Learn the standards and find some free practice tests. Google pentesting labs. You'll also probably need to be a good sysadmin. I'd google that too.