He was born on June 12, 1859, the eldest son and second child of Chun Afong and Julia Fayerweather Afong. Considered the first Chinese millionaire in Hawaii, his father was a wealthy Honolulu merchant originally from Zhuhai, Guangdong. His mother was a British-Hawaiian woman of aliʻi (noble) descent. He had fifteen siblings and at least three half-siblings from his father's first wife Lee Hong in China.
