Kuok was born in the seaside town of Mersing in Johor, Malaysia, and educated at St Joseph's School and the English College, Johor Bahru. His Father, Kuok Hock Swee, had arrived in then British Malaya from Foochow in Southern China at the age of 18 and later built a thriving Business supplying foodstuffs along the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia, that was subsequently merged with the Kuok Group in exchange for an equity stake. The Kuok family traces its ancestry to the 8th century Tang Dynasty general Guo Ziyi. Kuok is married and has four children - 3 sons and 1 daughter. His second son, Kuok Meng Ru, is in the music industry, owning the music Retail company Swee Lee, the cloud-based music creation platform BandLab Technologies, and a 49% stake in Rolling Stones Magazine. In 2017 Kuok was estimated by Forbes to be worth US$2.7Bn and ranked as the 8th richest Singaporean.