It was discovered by R. Scott Dunbar and Maria A. Barucci at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, on 30 August 1984.

It is named after Khufu, an ancient Egyptian pharaoh.

3362 Khufu is a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) because its minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) is less than 0.05 AU and its diameter is greater than 150 meters.

Khufu crosses the orbits of Mars, Earth, and Venus and makes close approaches to Mercury as well.

From 1900 to 2100 it drew nearer than 30 Gm (0.2 AU) to Mercury 26, Venus 27, Earth 20, and Mars 11 times.