Choi In-hun was born in 1936 in Hoeryong City, North Hamgyong Province, which is now in North Korea. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, he and his family fled to South Korea aboard a U.S. Navy ship. He studied law at Seoul National University, but joined the army without completing his final semester. His began publishing fiction while in the army, and was discharged in 1963. From 1977-2001, he served as a Professor of Creative Writing at the Seoul Institute of the Arts.