Unsuk Chin was born in Seoul, Korea. She began to teach herself piano and music theory at an early age and subsequently studied composition at the Seoul National University with Sukhi Kang. In 1985, Chin won the first prize of the Gaudeamus Foundation in Amsterdam with Spektra for three celli, her university graduation work. In the same year she moved to Europe after receiving an academic exchange grant to study in Germany,.
Her music is modern in language, but lyrical and non-doctrinaire in communicative power. Chin has received many honours, including the 2004 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for her Violin Concerto, the 2005 Arnold Schoenberg Prize, the 2010 Prince Pierre Foundation Music Award, the 2012 Ho-Am Prize, the 2017 Wihuri Sibelius Prize, the 2019 Hamburg Bach Prize, the 2020 Kravis Prize as well as the 2021 Leonie Sonning Music Prize.