Soon-Shiong was born in South Africa to Chinese immigrant parents , who fled from China during World War II. He graduated from high school at age 16 and received his medical degree at age 23 from the University of Witwatersrand, finishing fourth out of 189. After finishing his internship at Johannesburg???s General Hospital, Dr. Soon-Shiong earned a Master of Science degree from the University of British Columbia, where he was the first resident to receive multiple research awards simultaneously from the American College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and the American Association of Academic Surgery. He then moved to the United States where he initiated his surgical training at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), became a board-certified surgeon both as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (Canada) and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

Soon-Shiong joined the faculty of UCLA Medical School in 1983. He left UCLA in 1991 to start VivoRx, a diabetes research firm. In 2010 Forbes estimated his fortune at $5.0 billion, ranking him #154 among billionaires.

Soon-Shiong founded American Pharmaceutical Partners (APP) in 1997. On July 7, 2008 it was reported that Soon-Shiong, who owns more than 80 percent of APP, agreed to sell his stake to Fresenius SE for $3.7 billion.

In 2010, Soon-Shiong sold Abraxis BioScience to Celgene in a $2.9 billion cash-and-stock deal. and is on the board of directors for the Technology Council for the Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence at Northwestern University.

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