Tzuyu was born in Tainan, Taiwan, on June 14, 1999, to parents of self-made entrepreneurs.
In 2012, she was seen by talent scouts at the MUSE Performing Arts Workshop in Tainan and travelled to South Korea in November that year to become a K-pop trainee.After more than two years of training, she appeared on the South Korean reality show Sixteen in 2015, during which she was chosen as one of the nine members of the girl group TWICE.
She attended Hanlim Multi Art School in Seoul as a freshman, along with fellow group members Chaeyoung and Dahyun. She was in neighboring classes to Chaeyoung in her first year, then the same class in the second year. Tzuyu graduated alongside with Chaeyoung on February 11, 2019.