Ryan Kaji's parents Shion and Loann met as undergraduate students at Texas Tech University. Shion moved to the United States from Japan in high school and is the son of a microchip executive. Loann's family fled from Vietnam as refugees,[citation needed] and she grew up in Houston hoping to become a teacher, which she later did. Shion left Texas to get a master's in engineering at Cornell University, but returned soon after Ryan's birth, completing the degree online.[9]

Kaji began making YouTub