He was born in 1940 in Koh Somrong, Cambodia, an island on the Mekong about one hundred kilometers north of the capital.

While working as a teacher of French, he attended classes at the Royal University of Phnom Penh and, in 1968, received his law degree.

Opposed to the monarchy, he became a legal advisor to the Ministry of Defense after Sihanouk's removal from power in 1970.

In 1973, he published two successful collections of short stories: Ghouls, Ghosts, and Other Infernal Creatures and Widow of Five Husbands.

Forced into the countryside by the Khmer Rouge, he miraculously escaped death by pretending to be mute.