Kung Yao graduated with a summa cum laude B.S. degree in electrical engineering (1961) and continued to the doctoral program at Princeton University. After finishing his doctoral study (1965), he was a NAS-NRC Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California, Berkeley, (1965–1966). He joined UCLA as an assistant professor in 1966. After 49 years, he retired as a distinguished professor emeritus and a research professor. During his tenure, he served as an assistant dean of the HSSEAS (1985–1988) and as the chair of the Faculty Executive Committee (legislature body of the faculty members) of Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, HSSEAS (2001-2003). In his sabbaticals, he was a visiting assistant professor at M.I.T. (1968-1969), and was the Royal Society Kan Tong Po Visiting Professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2007)
