Kimiko Hahn was born in Mount Kisco, New York. Her mother, Maude Miyako Hamai, was Japanese American from Maui, Hawaii. Her father, Walter Hahn, was a German American from Wisconsin. Both of her parents were artists who met while studying in Chicago. Hahn grew up in Pleasantville, New York. From 1964 to 1965, the Hahns lived in Tokyo and then traveled west through Asia to Europe. When her family returned to New York City, Hahn and her sister were enrolled in Japanese language and dance classes at the New York Buddhist Church on Riverside Drive. There she became involved in social circles invested in the Asian American movement of the 1970s. She teaches in the creative writing and literary translation program at Queens College of the City University of New York, where she is a distinguished professor.