Jay Kim was born in 1939 in Gyeongseong (now Seoul, South Korea), during the Japanese occupation of Korea. His Korean name, Kim Chang Joon, roughly translates to "golden splendid law." During the Korean War, his home was destroyed. He immigrated to the United States in 1961. After attending a community college, Kim transferred to the University of Southern California, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in civil engineering. He later earned a doctorate in political science from Hanyang University.
