[1][2] He was born in Longjing, Jilin as the first son of the Reverend, Moon Jae-rin and mother, Shin Sin-muk.

Although Moon Ik-hwan entered Tokyo Union Theological Seminary in Japan, he was dismissed from the school because of his refusal to enlist himself to Japanese army.

Moon worked as the main chief for the translation on the Old Testament by a joint collaboration of the Protestant and Catholic church in South Korea for 8 years.

Moon was imprisoned in 1976 for dissident activities[3] and again in 1986 for his alleged encouragement of student activists at Seoul National University and his leadership in the protest at Inch'on in May of that year.

In the spring of 1993 he was released early from a five-year sentence for making an unapproved visit to North Korea, where he spoke with leaders about the possibility of unification, in 1989.